Hasta La Gadget!

Wind Mobile apparently isn’t worried that it has to fend without Verizon’s help: the carrier has confirmed to MobileSyrup that it will participate in Canada’s 700MHz wireless auction. While the provider doesn’t have much more to share at this stage, it sees the LTE-friendly spectrum bid as proof of a “long-term commitment” to the country. The company will still have to win spectrum to better compete with Bell, Rogers and Telus, but its entry should assuage Canucks worried that only the incumbents can afford to buy more bandwidth.

Update: EastLink and Public Mobile are also committed to the auction. Mobilicity, however, has yet to reveal its plans; if it doesn’t announce its participation in the auction before noon today, it’s out of the running.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

Comments

Source: MobileSyrup

It’s taken almost eight months, but AT&T has at last finalized its deal to purchase $1.9 billion worth of spectrum from Verizon. The agreement, first announced back in January, allows Verizon to unload a good chunk of its 700MHz spectrum, which AT&T will in turn use to improve its LTE service for 42 million customers across 18 different states. And that’s all she wrote, folks. If you’re curious to see whether your state is covered, all 18 of them are listed in the press release below. Be warned, though: you’ll also need to watch AT&T do a victory lap over how fast its network is.

Filed under: Wireless, Mobile, Verizon, AT&T

Comments

Verizon’s curiosity about entering the Canadian market could represent more than just a brief fascination: Reuters claims that Big Red has made a “tentative” bid for Wind Mobile. While the exact price would depend on what Verizon finds in Wind’s accounting books, the estimated value ranges from $600 million to $800 million. Neither party is commenting on the rumor, although Verizon may still be open to alternative deals — it supposedly approached Mobilicity about a potential acquisition. Verizon will likely need permission from both the Canadian government and Vodafone to make any takeover attempt official, but the reported bidding suggests that the company is willing to brave the gauntlet for some 700MHz spectrum and a presence up North.

Filed under: Wireless, Mobile, Verizon

Comments

Via: Phone Arena

Source: Reuters

Oh, Canada. Just one day after we received word of the CRTC’s new wireless code, Industry Canada — its government’s equivalent of the FCC — announced further postponements of the country’s pending 700MHz spectrum auction. Already delayed from the first half of this year to November, IC is pushing the auction back yet another two months to January 14th, 2014, while the application deadline has been reset for September 17th of this year. The main reason for the setback? This morning, the government denied Telus’ request to transfer AWS spectrum from Mobilicity — one of the most important factors in the potential merger of the two networks. As a result, IC decided to allow more time for the affected companies to figure out what to do next; more than likely, Telus will need the extra two months to pull an AT&T and rethink its acquisition strategy. Read the release below for a few more details behind the rationale.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

Comments

Via: MobileSyrup (1), (2)

Source: Marketwire

Well, it’s not the first half of 2013 as originally promised, but the Canadian government has now set a specific date for the country’s first 700MHz spectrum auction: November 19th of this year. Alongside that bit of news, Industry Minister Christian Paradis also detailed a set of rules that he says will help provide consumers with “more choices and more access at better prices.” That includes what the government describes as extended and expanded requirements for carriers to allow roaming on their networks, as well as a more general goal to have at least four competitors in each region of the country. Paradis also says the government is tightening its rules to increase cellphone tower sharing, a move aimed to both increase wireless coverage and “reduce cell tower proliferation.” You can find his full statement after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

Comments

Via: MobileSyrup

Source: Government of Canada