ISED officials push back on claim spectrum licensing framework needs revisions

By Ahmad Hathout OTTAWA – Officials from Innovation Canada pushed back Tuesday against the claim that the current spectrum auction and deployment framework needs a revision to deal with providers that don’t utilize spectrum within a reasonable timeframe. The Senate transport committee is on second reading of bill S242, which seeks to amend the Radiocommunications Act to require service providers to deploy spectrum and provide service to at least 50% of the population it covers within three years of the licence’s issuance. The idea behind the bill assumes that some service providers are hoarding spectrum and are looking to sell...