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3782
bt
join:2009-02-26
canada

bt

Member

Foreign ownership restrictions being eased

»www.cbc.ca/news/business ··· try.html

Short version: Restrictions lifted for telecom companies with under 10% market share by revenue. Companies that exceed the ownership restrictions placed on companies >10% market share, and then grow beyond 10% market share are exempted as long as it wasn't growth via merger.
MaynardKrebs
We did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17

MaynardKrebs

Premium Member

via cbc.ca
Paradis also announced the federal government will hold its next auction of radio waves needed by wireless firms to expand their networks in the first half of 2013, but cap the amount of spectrum companies can buy.

-----------------------

via globeandmail.com
The Conservatives also announced they would not set aside spectrum for smaller players, as the government did in 2008, for the 700 MHz frequency auction or for the 2,500 MHz auction expected to follow within a year later.

But they said they would introduce limits on purchases of spectrum that would function “like a set-aside” for smaller players and regional providers.

For the 700 MHz spectrum, the Tories said they would limit purchases of prime spectrum by incumbents.

This, they said, would effectively reserve one block of prime spectrum in each of 14 license areas of Canada for firms and for regional companies that aren’t national heavyweights.
resa1983
Premium Member
join:2008-03-10
North York, ON

resa1983

Premium Member

What does this mean for the Incumbents' discount brands?

Rogers - Fido & Chatr
Telus - Koodo

Does this mean that Rogers & Telus can get around these rules by purchasing the spectrum in the name of their discount brand?
zorxd
join:2010-02-05
Quebec, QC

zorxd

Member

No. Koodo is Telus.
MaynardKrebs
We did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17

MaynardKrebs

Premium Member

Look to Wind buying out Mobilicity.
jfmezei
Premium Member
join:2007-01-03
Pointe-Claire, QC

jfmezei to zorxd

Premium Member

to zorxd
Koodo does not have any spectrum. It is an MVNO riding on the Telus network, Telus towers, telus fibre telus this and telus that.

I am quite disapointed that the auction will be in 2013, when you consider that the ipad is out supporting LTE on 700 already.

Foreign owership is obviously to please Wind and make Wind legal so it can bid for spectrum.

He also says he wants 4 mobile networks in each region. So 3 national carriers, and some bit players who don't provide national competition. They should have gone with "at least 4 national carriers with additional regional players".
MaynardKrebs
We did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17

MaynardKrebs

Premium Member

said by jfmezei:

They should have gone with "at least 4 national carriers with additional regional players".

+100

With Paradis's worldview, Quebec will be stuck with Bell/Rogers/Telus/Videotron and no Wind
bt
join:2009-02-26
canada

bt to resa1983

Member

to resa1983
said by resa1983:

What does this mean for the Incumbents' discount brands?

Likely nothing. They're brands, not separate network operators.

The more curious question is how it applies to Bell and Telus, under their current network sharing arrangement.
nauru0
join:2011-02-02

nauru0 to bt

Member

to bt
This is funny. What is to stop someone like verizon or vodafone from setting up shop in Canada, and rather than buying whole companies at once just buying thousands and thousands of physical assets including towers, systems, networks, buildings, etc from smaller competitors? Technically they wouldn't be M&A since they would not be buying entire companies outright; just hundreds or thousands of asset purchases which cause inefficient Canadian companies to shrink while more efficient non-Canadian companies expand their infrastructure, revenue and market share. All without breaking the "no-M&A" rule.

And this doesn't rule out M&A for the initial foray into Canada as long as their revenue sucks (below 10%) in the first year. So in the first year deliberately limit subscriptions and offer next to nothing in terms of products to get past the rule, and then the following year introduce the full competitive power of Verizon/Vodafone and their complete product line, advertising etc and eat the incumbents' lunch.

And of course then the incumbents' lawyers will go crying to the courts saying that the competitors are hurting the incumbents and this needs to be stopped! The horror...

Should be interesting. I really hope some global heavyweights enter this country and start doing exactly the above.

BACONATOR26
Premium Member
join:2000-11-25
Nepean, ON

BACONATOR26 to MaynardKrebs

Premium Member

to MaynardKrebs
said by MaynardKrebs:

Look to Wind buying out Mobilicity.

Could be but Public Mobile may be bought out by an incumbent or go bankrupt before that.
MaynardKrebs
We did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17

MaynardKrebs

Premium Member

said by BACONATOR26:

said by MaynardKrebs:

Look to Wind buying out Mobilicity.

Could be but Public Mobile may be bought out by an incumbent or go bankrupt before that.

PM or any of the 'new entrants' can't be bought by an incumbent for 5 years since the 1st auction. Thereafter, yes they can be bought.

PM is more likely to go bankrupt first..... then the trustee in bankruptcy can likely sell to the highest bidder irrespective of who it is - unless the law about incumbents not being allowed to buy transcends bankruptcy law.

ColdAssassin3
join:2009-01-06

ColdAssassin3 to MaynardKrebs

Member

to MaynardKrebs
"It says this exemption from foreign investment restrictions would continue even if these companies grow naturally to occupy more than 10 per cent of the market, but would not if these firms get bigger through mergers or takeovers."

They will loose foreign investment if they merge. So Wind would have to buy mobi before the auction begins but they might be over 10%.

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz to bt

MVM

to bt
Why would Public Mobile go bankrupt or get bought out? All indications are that they're doing extremely well, experiencing massive growth that outpaces all other prepaid companies, including the incumbents. PM added 40k new subscribers in 2011Q3, as compared to the combined growth of all incumbents combined, at 27k.

They're certainly doing far better than WIND or Mobilicity... PM captured 150k subscribers on a $52 MM spectrum buy, while WIND captured 425k subscribers on a $442 MM spectrum buy.

It seems to me like PM is in a better position than any of the other new entrants.

EDIT: I've never understood all the PM doomsayers around here... No matter how successful PM is, no matter how fast they grow, everybody else always saying they're going to go bankrupt. What's up with that?

Khicken2
@teksavvy.com

Khicken2

Anon

Good on Harper.. the big three have been gouging us Canucks for too long..

nopers
@videotron.ca

nopers to MaynardKrebs

Anon

to MaynardKrebs
said by MaynardKrebs:

Look to Wind buying out Mobilicity.

The last spectrum that was sold can't be resold or bought by anyone till 2015.

These are the conditions of the last spectrum auction.

However, it doesn't prevent anyone from buying spectrum and just sitting on it for 5 years or so in order to sell it, or keep it from going to a competitors hands. This is what Bell does. Sits on it and never uses it.
jfmezei
Premium Member
join:2007-01-03
Pointe-Claire, QC

jfmezei to Guspaz

Premium Member

to Guspaz
Mister Guspaz,

Public Mobile may be taking on large numbers of new customers, but how far are they from being profitable ? At the end of the day, that is what bankers look for.

You'd need to find out what their current subscriber number is, and what the target number is for them to become profitable and whether they can grow to reach that number before the cash runs out.
MaynardKrebs
We did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17

MaynardKrebs to bt

Premium Member

to bt
PM's invested technology is, for the most part, worthless unless their equipment chassis can be card upgraded to AWS or to LTE.
MaynardKrebs

MaynardKrebs to nopers

Premium Member

to nopers
said by nopers :

said by MaynardKrebs:

Look to Wind buying out Mobilicity.

The last spectrum that was sold can't be resold or bought by anyone till 2015.

Wrong.
That spectrum can't be bought by an incumbent from a new entrant until then.
New entrants can merge/buyout each other during that period.

BACONATOR26
Premium Member
join:2000-11-25
Nepean, ON

BACONATOR26 to MaynardKrebs

Premium Member

to MaynardKrebs
said by MaynardKrebs:

PM's invested technology is, for the most part, worthless unless their equipment chassis can be card upgraded to AWS or to LTE.

Even then, I believe they'd need to buy new spectrum since they use a very rare band only used by CDMA. Either way, they aren't able to get any hot selling phones at the moment so they will have serious trouble trying to get new subscribers.

As for profitiable, they aren't profitable at all and they need to raise rates.
Small cellphone company Public Mobile has been keeping pace with other new entrants to Canada's wireless industry and will raise prices to try to reach profitability, analysts who were briefed by the company on Tuesday said.
»ca.reuters.com/article/t ··· 20120207

tonytoronto
join:2007-10-31
Toronto, ON

tonytoronto to bt

Member

to bt
PM will survive, many funds come from China groups already. After this, many more moneys will come. Wind has deep pockets its Mobi that might be in trouble, unless they get some serious backing. I hope all 3 survive in the long run, we need REAL competition in this country. Now, when are they doing the same for wireline internet and new age "tv"?

elwoodblues
Elwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in

elwoodblues to MaynardKrebs

Premium Member

to MaynardKrebs
said by MaynardKrebs:

said by jfmezei:

They should have gone with "at least 4 national carriers with additional regional players".

+100

With Paradis's worldview, Quebec will be stuck with Bell/Rogers/Telus/Videotron and no Wind

Isn't that how the free markets work?
elwoodblues

elwoodblues to BACONATOR26

Premium Member

to BACONATOR26
said by BACONATOR26:

said by MaynardKrebs:

Look to Wind buying out Mobilicity.

Could be but Public Mobile may be bought out by an incumbent or go bankrupt before that.

I thought the incumbents couldn't buy the new guys for 5yrs? Beside they using some crazy G band that nobody else does, and the phone selection is crap.
ohzopants
join:2008-05-16
Ottawa, ON

ohzopants to tonytoronto

Member

to tonytoronto
said by tonytoronto:

Now, when are they doing the same for wireline internet and new age "tv"?

I could see reasonable mobile LTE internet from the non-Bellus companies putting a toward pressure on their prices.

BobSmithy11
@teksavvy.com

BobSmithy11

Anon

Do you think it's safe to renew a year membership with Mobilicity considering they may be bought out by Wind, or is it better to switch to Wind?
34764170 (banned)
join:2007-09-06
Etobicoke, ON

34764170 (banned) to elwoodblues

Member

to elwoodblues
said by elwoodblues:

Isn't that how the free markets work?

That would require free markets in the first place.
Vomio
join:2008-04-01

Vomio to bt

Member

to bt
I see a lot of cellular frequency noise over this announcement, but what I am reading is a whole lot bigger.

From the »www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ic ··· 089.html

"The Telecommunications Act will be amended to lift foreign investment restrictions for telecom companies that hold less than a 10-percent share of the total Canadian telecommunications market. This will help telecom companies with a small market share access the capital they need to grow and compete."

That to me seems to be an all encompassing announcement for the whole of Telecom or am I reading too much into this and need to wait for some actual Government legal type text and side stepping.
freejazz_RdJ
join:2009-03-10

freejazz_RdJ

Member

It is for the whole of the sector, but most interest is in the wireless space for many reasons. The only talk outside of that would be MTS/Allstream partnering with a foreign telco or investor.
zorxd
join:2010-02-05
Quebec, QC

zorxd to jfmezei

Member

to jfmezei
said by jfmezei:

Koodo does not have any spectrum. It is an MVNO riding on the Telus network, Telus towers, telus fibre telus this and telus that.

Koodo is not even a real MVNO. It's just a different Telus brand. When Telus releases annual reports to shareholders, they include Koodo, because that what it really is, a part of Telus.
Vomio
join:2008-04-01

Vomio to freejazz_RdJ

Member

to freejazz_RdJ
That is good, I see what you mean about the current scope of this.

I'm thinking a little further down the road, once the foot is in the door so to speak. A 10% piece of the _total_ Canadian telecommunications market could be turned into a healthy piece of cherry picked pie.

The missing "third wire" and more for some areas with potential good return.

BliZZardX
Premium Member
join:2002-08-18
Toronto, ON
·Bell Fibe Internet

BliZZardX to bt

Premium Member

to bt
Wind can overlay LTE on 1700MHz AWS, they only need the 700MHz for rural build and Quebec because Videotron hoarded last time.

I don't think participating in a bidding war is a good use of money, regardless of how much more foreign capital can enter, investors see Canada's government trying to milk them and are fighting back... this like the the US debt ceiling game last summer, who blinks first? If the new entrants choose not to participate, everyone loses. Paradis is a douche for setting up the auction this way.