Verizon recently ruled out expanding to Canada but not before it stirred up the rumour mill over the summer. The move was taken seriously and Canada’s incumbent carriers (Bell, Rogers, and TELUS) launched a massive PR campaign to block the entry of foreign carriers with the rules that the Canadian government has laid down for its upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction. The Canadian government responded and consumers could do little to avoid the pervasive war of words that followed. Despite Verizon being out of the picture, it now appears that we may not be quite done.
According to BNN, three foreign carriers are looking to make a bid for the upcoming spectrum auction. The report adds that the three are AT&T, Vodafone and Norse carrier Telenor. A separate source adds that another overseas carrier inquired about the auction but was counseled not to take part.
It’s not clear how serious all three are though. They could be “kicking the tires” or seriously considering a bid. For example, Vodafone is flush with cash after selling its Verizon Wireless stake back to parent company Verizon for US$130 billion. Telenor, for its part, owns a third of Vimpelcom, the company that owns (and is trying to sell) WIND Mobile.
Parties interested in the upcoming auction must register their interest and put down their refundable deposit by September 17th. Those who enter will not be allowed to negotiate with other bidders until next year. The auction itself kicks off on January 14th, 2014.
Sources : BNN // MobileSyrup