Rogers, Bell willing to buy WIND's spectrum

By on Nov 15, 2009 at 1:45 PM
News November 15, 2009

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While Canadian carrier hopeful WIND might not be launching any time soon thanks to its foreign ownership structure, outsiders are already drooling at the prospect of buying up all of WIND’s spectrum in the event that it doesn’t launch. WIND CEO Ken Campbell dismissed such things as “media speculation” during our interview with him and repeated ad nauseam that WIND is currently weighing its options, but now more of its would be competitors are speaking up on what might be. Said Rogers CEO Nadir Mohamed on Friday: “Spectrum is a very valuable asset. Rogers for sure would be interested in picking it up.” Snapping up all of WIND’s spectrum wouldn’t be cheap considering it was originally purchased from Industry Canada in 2008 at a cost of $442.1 million Canadian ($420.4 million USD), but the possibility that several of the Big Three would buy it in parcels if the launch never happens remains relatively high. After all, Bell has previously said it would be willing to purchase half of WIND’s spectrum at $0.50 on the dollar.

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  • jesseps

    I hope someone else is willing to buy up WIND if they can’t find a way to fix this problem. We need another competitor in the market.

  • Invid

    Damn it, that spectrum was set aside for new entrants, and that’s where it should go!

    Wind should challenge the CRTC in court. The government can’t play both sides here, on the one hand saying that Wind is Canadian enough to buy the spectrum, but saying they’re not Canadian enough to use it on the other. I want competition and I refuse to have the CRTC scuttle it at the behest of the incumbents, and I’m writing my MP.

    • Chucky

      You are mistaken on several key points.

      1) The CRTC is independent of Government of Canada.

      2) It was Industry Canada that said WIND was “Canadian enough”, but that was pursuant to the Radiocommunications Act.

      3) The CRTC found that WIND was not “Canadian enough” under the Telecommunications Act.

      • Vitaly

        Chucky, I agree with all of your above points – however, I think there is still a reasonable argument that there is some “constructive” obligation on the part of Industry Canada to work with CRTC to find a reasonable solution. I don’t think it’s fair to ask Wind, a private organization trying to compete in a publicly or quasi-publicly regulated space, to fix this problem all on its own.

        Perhaps Wind should enlist the assistance of Industry Canada to be paired up with willing Canadian equity partners.

      • Invid

        CRTC commissioners are appointed by the Cabinet, so presumably they’re not quite independent of the government. They also have a working relationship with Industry Canada who are responsible for the Telecom Act.

        As you said yourself Industry Canada found them to be Canadian enough under the Telecommunications Act to bid for spectrum.

        Grounds enough to challenge the CRTC’s ruling in court if you ask me. I hope Wind does too.

        Better still would be abolishing the ownership rules entirely. If the big three can’t compete, too bad. They don’t deserve protection when they use it to fleece Canadian consumers and avoid anything that resembles competition, wireless or wired. Or are you now going to defend the fact that Canadians pay the 3rd highest cellular rates in the world? Higher even than other industrialized countries with lower population densities.

      • Vitaly

        Agreed – if the government acts to protect Canadian ownership of telecommunications utilities (which I actually think makes sense), then it should also similarly protect Canadian consumers.

        The one-way street we’re on now is what has left us with three telecom giants that don’t need to care.

      • Invid

        I love that Chucky just comes back to downvote our responses, but offers no justification of the high rates we pay. I wonder if he works for Rogers or Telus?

        Of course I could be wrong about his motivations……maybe he’s a shareholder!

  • Rich

    Promise: If I ever win the lottery I’m going to start up a wireless company and bury the BIG THREE.

    They’re scared of competition because they know the second a viable alternative presents itself, they’re finished.

    • joe

      you would need to win100 lotteries to maybe buy one of them. LOL.

  • BoogerEater

    I wonder if WIND is still reviewing their options.

  • http://angrychinesedriver.com AngryChineseDriver

    Uh oh. Bad news bears.

  • J.P Michaels

    If either of the big 3 is going to buyt the spectrum, we can say good bye to any more competition. The Gov’t screwed this one pretty good.

  • Galen20K

    I wonder why WIND is being held up over this, that’s terrible!

  • http://www.andrewpederson.com Pederson

    From an attempt to a more open, fair, price according market to an even more closed, monopolistic one. Only in Canada can a Government/business fuck up that much to take such a 180 in the complete other direction. There’s a reason Canada has the highest prices, longest contracts in the world (almost).

    And this is only one of the many drastic dives we’ve taken in the last few years. Any spots in America open? We seem to be going through our “Bush-era”.

    • Pedro

      It’s the Canadian way. Stay rooted in mediocrity. This is not just in wireless. Practices across various industries are needlessly bureaucratic and inefficient. Car pricing, cable (UBB etc), clothing prices etc etc…

  • travis

    FUCK NO!

  • Bobomo

    This is how the mob operates: “We’re so sorry to hear your restaurant burned to the ground in a mysterious fire. Such a shame. We’d be happy to help you, however, by purchasing the remains of your building. At a discount of course, due to the fire damage.”

  • Nt

    If either Rogers, or Bell, or Telus for that matter, is allowed to buy Wind I guarantee we will be seeing 5 year contracts, $10 for Call Display, $50 Value Pack bundles, etc. When they spend that much money it wont be from their pocket but it will be from my pocket, your pocket, and every Canadian who dont speak up against this.

  • T

    Something makes me feel this was the big three’s plan all along. Hence not making a big fuss about anything when the spectrum was first auctioned. They truely are evil lol

  • Nt

    Fyi Fido is currently selling the Motorola W233 for $65 Cad meanwhile BestBuy in the US is selling it for $7.99 US (black Friday). Way to go canadian competition.

    • T

      Not to mention pretty much all smart phones are priced the same on a 2 year contract and ours on a 3 year lol

  • Chris

    Anyone who believes that WIND is going to be any different than the “big 3″ is wrong. Yeah they’ll blow us away at first to try and lure us in, but give it a year. They’ll be no different than Rogers, Bell or Telus. And before you know it we’ll be complaining about the lack of competition in the Canadian market. Hoping and praying a 5th company comes along to bury the Big 4!

    • T

      WIND will have no contracts. That being said, no they wont be lol

  • abc123

    One must fight corruption with corruption in order to beat the big 3.

    How much do you want to bet that some CRTC members (or any other important industry members) have Olympic gold medal hockey tickets courtesy of Bell, Rogers, and Telus?

    Until then, bend over and take it.

  • br14

    If half of WINDs commitments were met, they would blow Rogers and Bell out of some of Canadas key markets.

    Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I reckon there’s a high degree of likelihood that a backroom deal has been made with the CRTC (whose primary customers in all media are Rogers and Bell) to stop WIND moving forward or at least delay their implementation.

    All the main carriers have completely incomprehensible plans, change rates with limited notice, have the weirdest and most complex pricing you’ve ever seen, and have not so good customer service.

    WIND must have got them running scared. Most Canadians at best tolerate their lousy cell phone service. Many I know will drop their current carriers ASAP if there’s a decent alternative.

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