TORONTO – Mobilicity went to the drawing board to illustrate its opinion on spectrum set-asides in the pending 700 MHz spectrum auction.
Inspired by Charles Dickens' classic novel Oliver Twist, the company issued a political cartoon (see below) satirizing Canada's incumbent carriers' “hoarding of spectrum" and efforts seeking to prevent new entrants' growth.
"For Mobilicity, acquiring more spectrum in the upcoming Federal Government auction is a must-have – not a nice-to-have," said president and COO Stewart Lyons, in Wednesday’s statement. "Our current 3G technology uses our entire 10MHz of spectrum and we need more to expand and introduce new technologies, such as LTE."
Lyons also claimed that Bell, Rogers and Telus own more spectrum than any other carrier in the world, and quoted recent estimates from the SeaBoard Group that the free spectrum awarded free of charge in 1985 to the 'Big Three' by the government is now valued at more than $20 billion.
"The government invited us to raise hundreds of millions of dollars and employ scores of Canadians to create a competitive environment for consumers”, Lyons added. “We expect them to make the appropriate decision to keep wireless competition going."
