A new world for wireless telecom?
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 | 10:59 AM ET
by Peter Nowak, CBCNews.ca
It's too bad the government's wireless spectrum auction hasn't ended yet because two key players took to the stage at the Canadian Telecom Summit today. Robert Depatie and Pierre Blouin - respective chief executive officers of Videotron and MTS Allstream - gave keynote addresses, but both skirted around the issue of wireless because of strict Industry Canada rules.
Depatie was the feistier of the two, not surprising given that Videotron – owned by Quebecor – looks to emerge from the auction holding a bunch of spectrum in Quebec and thus become a new cellphone carrier. Quebecor has also been active in trying to get spectrum in Toronto and along the 401 highway corridor, which probably means the company has ambitions outside its home province.
Depatie took shots at the incumbent cellphone carriers – Bell, Rogers and Telus – who last year argued against creating special auction rules that would encourage new entrants. Ted Rogers went so far as to call Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau a "scallywag."
The government ended up setting aside about 40 per cent of the spectrum for newcomers, resulting in a flurry of bidding activity. The auction will rake in at least $3.7 billion, far more than the $1.5 billion that had been projected. In fact, as of yesterday, potential new entrants were responsible for $1.7 billion in bids.
"Eating words has never given us indigestion," Depatie said, quoting Winston Churchill. He also borrowed a euphemism from Newfoundland for describing the incumbents' earlier arguments, calling them "codswallop." Other than that, however, Depatie said he would only be able to share Videotron's wireless plans once the auction is over.
Blouin was more subdued in his comments regarding wireless, which was also not surprising given that MTS saw its plans for a national cellphone network evaporate just before the auction started, when its partnership with the Canadian Pension Plan and private equity firm Blackstone fell through.
The MTS CEO did suggest, however, that a partnership with one of the auction winners is possible: "Life in wireless does not end in the auction," he said. "The market will change. The telecom market after the auction will be a new world for customers."
If we were the betting kind, an alliance between MTS and Globalive would make tons of sense. MTS is almost solely geared toward the business market, while Globalive, which operates as Yak, caters largely to consumers. It's entirely possible MTS could rent airwaves from Globalive to provide its own business cellphone service across the country.
« Previous Post | Main | Next Post »
This discussion is now Open. Submit your Comment.
« Previous Post | Main | Next Post »
Post a Comment
Tech Bytes »
Recent Posts
- Jesse Brown: Worldwide copyfight heats up down under
- Wednesday, February 25, 2009
- Alas, that’s not Atlantis, Google says
- Monday, February 23, 2009
- Jesse Brown: Government strangely closed about open source
- Thursday, February 19, 2009
- Is traffic management working?
- Thursday, February 19, 2009
- Jesse Brown: Last chance to chime in on Net Neutrality
- Wednesday, February 11, 2009
- Subscribe to Tech Bytes
Archives
- February 2009 (10)
- January 2009 (12)
- December 2008 (10)
- November 2008 (10)
- October 2008 (9)
- September 2008 (4)
- August 2008 (4)
- July 2008 (16)
- June 2008 (9)
- May 2008 (12)
- April 2008 (15)
- March 2008 (13)
- February 2008 (13)
- January 2008 (47)
- December 2007 (12)
- November 2007 (12)
- October 2007 (17)
- September 2007 (18)
- August 2007 (17)
- July 2007 (27)
- June 2007 (18)
- May 2007 (28)
- April 2007 (25)
- March 2007 (28)
- February 2007 (25)
- January 2007 (35)
- December 2006 (25)
Comments
Bill
Vancouver
I honestly can't wait for this to go through. Canada is one of the last "developed countries" to have affordable access to data plans for business and personal use.
Take the iPhone for example, you know if there was more competition in the market we would have had the iPhone here in Canada a year ago with affordable rates. Rogers Canada along with Fido and Telus here on the west coast have the highest data plan rates in the WORLD currently. I shudder to think how much this has slowed down the tech industry in Canada. Think of all the new business that was lost because people could not respond to emails in a timely manner from their blackberry or iphone. I for one know I have lost at least 10K+ in business because I could not access my email for a day and a half while traveling as most Canadian airports do NOT have free wireless access, and most hotels are stuck in the 90's with no access to 'secure' wireless access.
Fingers crossed that this process is fast and we see some new players on the market soon!
Posted June 19, 2008 04:22 PM
mt
Ottawa
I can't understand people whining about data rates! I am with Bell, I pay $35 / month for 250 day minutes, free evenings and weekends, AND free unlimited incoming all the time! This easily covers me unless I make long distance calls - which I don't.
I then add to that $20 / month for *unlimited* data. -- That's right, $20 for unlimited data!!
My total bill for the month comes to about $70 and since this is the only phone that I have, I'd say that is pretty good.
If I were to go with the per MB rate Bell has, the 10MB worth of data I used last month would have cost me over $500 ... but that's why I pay $20 for unlimited instead.
If you can't find affordable data plans, you aren't looking hard enough.
Posted June 20, 2008 09:16 AM
Vance Tipton
I don't know a lot of people who can justify $70+ (where available no less!) on a cell phone and/or data plan.
Especially considering the collusion on the telecom cartels in Canada to ensure no one service outshines the other. Mediocrity is the key to profitability in this industry and Canada is being raked across the coals for what little these albatrosses manage to trickle out.
We could be so much further today for what we're being charged - it's insane. But nobody has ever made an expectation of objectivity and fairness because a free market favors greed.
Don't support Canadian wireless telecom until the companies finally get around to offering it at more practical price points. This includes unlimited data with better bandwidth and coverage and no arbitrary manufactured restrictions on total data transmitted.
There's no justification for the way Canadian telecoms are behaving. None.
Posted July 31, 2008 03:06 AM