MONTREAL – Bell is urging the federal government to make the 700 MHz spectrum auction “open and transparent” without measures such as set asides that it claims could result in a new “rural-urban digital divide”.
After promising to use new spectrum to extend its LTE network to rural Canada, Bell called out the “new carriers” which, “to the detriment of rural Canada”, have concentrated their resources in major urban centres.
"The economic reality in a country as geographically large and diverse as Canada is that you need scale both to partner with global technology leaders and to invest at the level required to ensure that all Canadians are part of the mobile broadband revolution," said Bell Mobility president Wade Oosterman, in a statement. "Without a fair and open spectrum auction, companies like the new carriers that have chosen to operate only in the most profitable urban areas would be the only ones to benefit. We risk a new rural-urban digital divide in which Bell is forced to focus its resources on urban centres in order to compete."
