I must admit that this was a plot twist that I didn’t see coming. The Canadian Government has said “nine” to a proposed buyout of Mobilicity by Telus. Here’s what what Industry minister Christian Paradis said:
“Our government has been clear that spectrum set aside for new entrants was not intended to be transferred to incumbents,” Paradis said Tuesday at a news conference in Ottawa.
He doesn’t stop there. If anyone else was thinking of buying a upstart wireless company, that likely isn’t going be allowed:
Under the rules of the 2009 auction through which Mobilicity came into existence, any new wireless carriers were prohibited from selling their spectrum to an incumbent within five years. That came into question last month when Telus emerged with a $380-million bid to take over Mobilicity.
“We will not waive this condition of licence and will not approve this, or any other transfer of set-aside spectrum to an incumbent [within the five-year limit],” he said.
This alone isn’t going to mean lower prices for cell phone users in Canada, but it does show that the Canadian Government doesn’t like the current situation. However, I still think that they need to take stronger action to bring Canada in line with the rest of the world in this regard. Let’s see if they do more to help consumers.
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This entry was posted on June 5, 2013 at 8:20 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Mobilicity, Telus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Telus / Mobilicity Deal Nixed By Feds
I must admit that this was a plot twist that I didn’t see coming. The Canadian Government has said “nine” to a proposed buyout of Mobilicity by Telus. Here’s what what Industry minister Christian Paradis said:
“Our government has been clear that spectrum set aside for new entrants was not intended to be transferred to incumbents,” Paradis said Tuesday at a news conference in Ottawa.
He doesn’t stop there. If anyone else was thinking of buying a upstart wireless company, that likely isn’t going be allowed:
Under the rules of the 2009 auction through which Mobilicity came into existence, any new wireless carriers were prohibited from selling their spectrum to an incumbent within five years. That came into question last month when Telus emerged with a $380-million bid to take over Mobilicity.
“We will not waive this condition of licence and will not approve this, or any other transfer of set-aside spectrum to an incumbent [within the five-year limit],” he said.
This alone isn’t going to mean lower prices for cell phone users in Canada, but it does show that the Canadian Government doesn’t like the current situation. However, I still think that they need to take stronger action to bring Canada in line with the rest of the world in this regard. Let’s see if they do more to help consumers.
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This entry was posted on June 5, 2013 at 8:20 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Mobilicity, Telus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.