This should send a chill down the backs of the big three. Verizon as far as we currently know isn’t coming to Canada. But the company had a lot of interest in coming north of the border according to The Globe And Mail:
Before pulling the plug on its Canadian expansion, Verizon tabled a $350-million preliminary offer for struggling start-up Mobilicity over the summer. That was in addition to its $700-million initial offer for another small carrier, Wind Mobile. Verizon also looked at another way of entering the market that would not require a spectrum purchase, but would involve leasing space on an existing wireless network.
Verizon’s offer for Mobilicity, which is legally know as Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises Wireless Inc., largely reflected the value of the small carrier’s spectrum and did not include any assumption of debt. Mobilicity paid $243.1 million for its spectrum licences during the 2008 auction. It launched service in 2010 and has roughly 250,000 customers.
Verizon spent months studying the merits of both the Mobilicity and Wind deals, with a large contingent of its staff spending long stretches in Canada as local law firms and accountants conducted due diligence on its behalf.
So Rogers, Bell, and Telus really dodged a bullet on that one. And they may have dodged another one:
“We have received confirmation from Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile USA that they did not submit applications for the Canadian 700 MHz auction,” wrote Jeff Fan, a telecom analyst with Scotia Capital Inc. in a note to clients late Wednesday. “We believe the absence of a large U.S. operator removes a threat for the Canadian wireless carriers … Although there is still speculation about other large global operators being involved, we do not believe they would have the same impact on Canada as the U.S. carriers.”
If that’s true, then it’s truly business as usual with the Canadian consumer ending up on the short end of the stick because there’s an oligopoly in Canada. Pity.
Though there might be a shock on the 23rd. Circle that date on your calendar.
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This entry was posted on September 20, 2013 at 7:47 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Canada, verizon, wireless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Verizon Had More Interest In Canada Than Previously Thought
This should send a chill down the backs of the big three. Verizon as far as we currently know isn’t coming to Canada. But the company had a lot of interest in coming north of the border according to The Globe And Mail:
Before pulling the plug on its Canadian expansion, Verizon tabled a $350-million preliminary offer for struggling start-up Mobilicity over the summer. That was in addition to its $700-million initial offer for another small carrier, Wind Mobile. Verizon also looked at another way of entering the market that would not require a spectrum purchase, but would involve leasing space on an existing wireless network.
Verizon’s offer for Mobilicity, which is legally know as Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises Wireless Inc., largely reflected the value of the small carrier’s spectrum and did not include any assumption of debt. Mobilicity paid $243.1 million for its spectrum licences during the 2008 auction. It launched service in 2010 and has roughly 250,000 customers.
Verizon spent months studying the merits of both the Mobilicity and Wind deals, with a large contingent of its staff spending long stretches in Canada as local law firms and accountants conducted due diligence on its behalf.
So Rogers, Bell, and Telus really dodged a bullet on that one. And they may have dodged another one:
“We have received confirmation from Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile USA that they did not submit applications for the Canadian 700 MHz auction,” wrote Jeff Fan, a telecom analyst with Scotia Capital Inc. in a note to clients late Wednesday. “We believe the absence of a large U.S. operator removes a threat for the Canadian wireless carriers … Although there is still speculation about other large global operators being involved, we do not believe they would have the same impact on Canada as the U.S. carriers.”
If that’s true, then it’s truly business as usual with the Canadian consumer ending up on the short end of the stick because there’s an oligopoly in Canada. Pity.
Though there might be a shock on the 23rd. Circle that date on your calendar.
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This entry was posted on September 20, 2013 at 7:47 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Canada, verizon, wireless. 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.