Canadian Wireless Spectrum Auction Completed
July 21, 2008 | 5:33 pmThe Canadian Wireless spectrum auction is now completed and the winner is….the Canadian Government which will net $4.2 billion dollars, based on the CBC report.
What does this mean, well we will now have a new national cellphone provider - Globalive who currently sells home and long distance service under Yak.
As per the Federal Industry Minister, Jim Prentice, says this will bring in more competition and will benefit the Canadian consumer. I’m currently not so sure about that. This auction itself brought in more money than expected, almost 4x as much. This means current suppliers like Telus, Bell and Rogers paid more for the auction and will of course pass on this to their consumers with higher rates. Also the new player will probably want a big cut of the “Canadian cellphone pie” and will charge higher rates just because we are so use to these rates here in Canada.
I honestly hope I am wrong in this, but really time will tell. We have to wait for 30 days from now before Globalive announces its plan and how long it will take to be operational.
The good news is that the new player will have 3G capabilities and run under GMS, which is what Rogers and Fido currently run under. Hopefully they will introduce the iPhone to their line and give Rogers a run for their money.
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