OTTAWA – Globalive Communications Corp., the Yak-led consortium, which had boasted of becoming Canada’s fourth national carrier, appears to have a gaping hole in the province of Quebec as bidding activity peters out in Canada’s auction for advanced wireless services in the 2 GHz range.
“Globalive has as close to a national license as anyone, but Quebec is a hole for them,’’ says Evan Kelly, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s national communications industry leader. “They’ve backed off. Quebec is one of the regions where there are no multiple parties going after licences anymore, so it seems to have settled.’’
With 135 rounds complete, Industry Canada has raised nearly $4.1 billion. Its last auction, by contrast, lasted just 73 rounds. While yesterday’s last round produced 35 new bids, only three of the 292 licenses available drew multiple bidders: Moose Jaw, where SaskTel is fending off Rogers and Shaw; Regina, where Telus is dueling with Shaw; and, North Bay, over which Bell and Rogers are duking it out.
“I’m surprised it went through last week,’’ says Kelly. “I’ve got to believe that it’s going to come to an end this week.’’
“The magnitude of the increases has been steadily dropping, so there’s less and less movement in these territories. I expect that they will get solved over the next few days. Someone will throw in the towel.’’
Most of the major urban markets will get two or three competitors, he says. For example, as of yesterday’s standings, Shaw, Globalive and Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises (DAVE) Wireless held major blocks of spectrum in Vancouver. In southern Ontario, Globalive, DAVE and Quebecor all hold licenses.
Rogers continues to lead all bidders, committing $909 million, while Quebecor leads the new entrants, placing $564.9 million.
Globalive, led by CEO Anthony Lacavera, is next, having wagered $432 million. The company previously had said that it intended to build a Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) platform to enable other carriers to deliver features and content to niche markets. Globalive is backed by Weather Investments, which wholly owns Wind Telecommunicazioni in Italy and Wind Hellas in Greece and holds the majority of Orascom Telecom Holdings S.A.E.
– Caroline van Hasselt
