Canada has raised CAD 3.47 billion from the auction of licences in the 600 MHz band for mobile services. In total, 104 licences were awarded to nine Canadian companies, including 40 licences to regional providers, covering the entire country.
Regional providers more than doubled their share of low-band spectrum, the government noted. This is expected to help improve competition as well as improve roll-out of faster mobile services.
The auction started 12 March with 12 qualified bidders. The total 70 MHz of spectrum was divided in blocks of 10 MHz for each service area, including 30 MHz set aside for regional providers in each area. Only eight blocks were not acquired in the auction.
Rogers top bidder
Rogers Wireless acquired the most spectrum, with 52 licences costing in total CAD 1.725 billion. With an estimated population coverage of 35.1 million, the licences cost CAD 1.71 per POP. This includes all available blocks in Southern and Northern Ontario, Northern Quebec, Atlantic Canada, Manitoba and all three territories. The frequencies will be combined with future 3,500 MHz and mmWave spectrum to create a 5G network across Canada, the company said. Rogers is already working with Ericsson to develop the network.
Telus came next, with 12 licences for CAD 931.8 million in total. The operator said it will use the frequencies to increase urban capacity, while also expanding the rural availability of wireless broadband service.
In a statement,Telus criticised the structure of the auction, saying the reserved spectrum for smaller operators "effectively amounted to a subsidy for certain well-capitalized cable companies" and inflated the prices for the licences. It calculates the average price per MHz-pop paid by the national carriers in the open auction was CAD 1.08 higher on average than what was paid by those in the set aside spectrum, which equates to a "subsidy of CAS 1.1 billion by Canadian taxpayers".
Cable operator Shaw Communications' Freedom Mobile bought 11 licences for CAD 492 million, or CAD 0.78 per POP. Shaw bought 30 MHz across each of British Columbia, Alberta and Southern Ontario as well as 20 MHz in Eastern Ontario and said the spectrum will serve to upgrade its LTE service and build a foundation for 5G.
Quebec cable operator Videotron took another 10 licences for CAD 255.8 million. This significantly increases its low spectrum holdings, and gives Videotron in total 130 MHz of mobile spectrum in most regions of Quebec and 90 MHz in the Ottawa area, spread across the AWS-1, AWS-3, 600 MHz, 700 MHz and 2500 MHz bands.
The other bidders were smaller providers, with Iris taking seven licences for a total of CAD 2.6 million, SaskTel three for CAD 12.2 million, Xplornet four for CAD 35.8 million and Bragg four for CAD 13.0 million. Xplornet said it plans to use the spectrum in Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland to expand its fixed broadband services.No licences for Bell
Bell Canada notably did not acquire any of the spectrum rights. The company said it already had sufficient low-band frequencies to deliver 4G and 4G services, adding that its main US peers also chose not to own any 600 MHz spectrum in their markets. The existing frequencies, combined with network enhancements like cell splitting, enables the company to deliver mobile broadband service for "significantly less" capital than buying 600 MHz spectrum, it said.Bell holds spectrum in the 700, 850, 1900, AWS-1, AWS-3, 2500, 3500 MHz and 24 GHz bands. The planned shutdown of its CDMA network on 30 April also enables Bell to re-farm spectrum in the 850 MHz band for 5G services.
