TORONTO – Canada’s wireless carriers were pleased to read on Cartt.ca that Industry Minister Tony Clement is going to make the auction of the 700 MHz wireless spectrum a priority of his ministry,
“We’re happy he’s saying, ‘bring it on’,” Rogers Communications senior vice-president of regulatory, Ken Engelhart, told Cartt.ca.“We agree with Minister Clement, that (the auction) should be brought on fairly quickly.”
The 700 MHz spectrum, of course, is what our conventional broadcasters use to transmit analog TV signals right now. They face a deadline of August 31, 2011 to get off that spectrum (shutting off their analog transmitters) and convert to digital in mandatory markets, (those 300,000 or larger, plus all provincial or territorial capitals), so that the spectrum blocks revert back to the government.
This particular spectrum is considered very attractive to service providers for its broadband capabilities, like better video (and it can easily penetrate walls when compared to other frequencies). It is expected to be expensive, too.
“If you look at the U.S., Verizon and AT&T were the big purchasers of 700 MHz and they know that it is what a large carrier needs for its base LTE offering,” added Englehart.
However, on Tuesday at a BMO media and telecom conference, Jim Hardy, the CFO for new wireless entrant Public Mobile was quoted on Twitter by Globe and Mail reporter Iain Marlow saying that the spectrum should be 100% set aside for the new wireless companies, leaving none for incumbents.
“I think it would be crazy to reserve it for newcomers,” said Engelhart in response. “If our large carriers can’t have 700, we’re just not going to have fourth generation wireless networks like the Americans have and I think that would be a big mistake for Canada.”
Engelhart says he is hearing from Ottawa that the ministry is “going to start the work this year or very early next year.
“They need to do a band plan and then an auction framework and it’s certainly possible they could have the auction in 2011, but I think they’d have to really hustle. I think it would be more likely early in ’12.”
– Greg O’Brien
