40MHz of Canadian spectrum auction set aside for newcomers

Although America's upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction could see a newcomer or two join the fold, Canada's auction is actually calling for it. Reportedly, Industry Minister Jim Prentice made known that 40MHz of the 105MHz of spectrum available for bidding would be "set aside for newcomers to the industry," hinting that more competition could eventually lead to lower cellphone rates across the nation. He went on to say that the "introduction of new service providers would help to make Canada's wireless market more dynamic, more competitive, and more innovative," and moreover, only companies that hold less than 10-percent of revenues in that market would be allowed to bid for the luscious 40MHz segment. As expected, big boys in the biz are none too pleased about the announcement, with Telus executive vice-president Janet Yale even going so far as to say that it believed the move "wouldn't be in the best interest of consumers or telecom industry overall." Right.

[Thanks, Andy]

[Rob @ Nov 29th 2007 10:35AM]

"wouldn't be in the best interest of consumers or telecom industry overall."

I love it when these big corporations always mention "in the best interest of the consumer" when things don't work to their favor. However, when things work best for the consumer, big corporations shut it down. A**holes.

Why does it seem that other countries are trying to maintain innovation by not letting the big corporations take the whole pie, while in the U.S. we're getting shoved?

[dj-kenpo @ Nov 29th 2007 1:28PM]

dude, american cell prices are way better than canadian ones, and you have more companies. don't look at this as we've got it better. we have 3 cell companies charging outrageuos proces. $1000+ for 700mb data on rogers in toronto.

that telus lady with her, not good for the consumer bs, needs to get slapped.

go away telus, go away and trip down the stairs.

[Mark @ Nov 29th 2007 7:04PM]

Agreed. Our cell phone plans are complete garbage. 80$ for 1000 minutes, unlimited evenings + weekends + 12 megs.

[Demo @ Nov 29th 2007 10:37AM]

This just makes sense. Are you hearing, America?

[John P @ Nov 29th 2007 10:43AM]

This is a pretty great move, and America should take a cue. Regardless of which service you use, you have to pay through the roof. Some smaller people to the market could be really, really useful. We saw this in the airline industry in the 70s/80s, when the big airlines tried to shut out Southwest. And obviously since then, fights in the continental US have become cheaper if you go to the right places. Any normal consumer will pick a $99 fare over a $350 fare. Just like most consumers will pick a cheaper cell phone plan over something that AT&T or Verizon charges.

[Anthony @ Nov 29th 2007 10:50AM]

So this is something that's confusing me- in the US we have a hard enough time getting HSDPA & quadband phones.

When these new spectrums come on board does that mean that cell phones must add additional antennae making them more proprietary to specific carriers?

[huh @ Nov 29th 2007 10:59AM]

I was wondering about that too. I saw references to "worldwide spectrum" recently, if this is on yet another band, we'll soon need hundred-band radios in our mobiles. I hope this somehow wakes the carriers up for affordable, comprehensible services.

[John @ Nov 29th 2007 10:59AM]

sweet. looks like i'd be wise to stay with short-term contracts or just carry my present contract month-to-month until this all gets straightened out. God knows we pay a tonne for service up here right now.

[Khris @ Nov 29th 2007 11:03AM]

It's about #@*$ing time the stranglehold of Rogers/Telus/Bell on the Canadian Wireless Industry was loosened.

[Jason @ Nov 29th 2007 11:05AM]

I have only one remaining problem : indefinite licenses

This spectrum is wildly valuable, and is the property of all Canadians. While the expected $500 Million this auction is expected to generate sounds like a lot, it's not when you consider the license is for an indefinite period of time.

I would like to see spectrum auctioned off for a reasonable time-frame. Give the providers enough time to make back their investment and profit if they're efficient, and then re auction the spectrum up again 25 years later.

Even a few providers would get off their butts and offer compelling services if they only had 25 years to make back their investment.

[RonV @ Nov 29th 2007 11:08AM]

If you really want to see cell phone costs come down. Take off the regulation fees and compliancy costs. Oh yea and the 10 to 15 percent taxes the Fed, State, and Locals add to your bill..

[Faramarz @ Nov 29th 2007 12:14PM]

meh.. I hope this means 'actual' competition. I think it was back in 1995 or 97 that this same spectrum wen on auction, and what came out of it were Cantel and Tricell (if I'm not mistaking). It didn't do shit to the industry, cause their main focus was to capitalize on the opportunity and exit by selling to the 3 big guys. Rogers acquired one and the other was snagged by Telus.

same fucking game all over again. It infuriates me that this socialist government still has the iron first regulators calling the game. We're paying 3 times the amount Europeans pay for data plans and 2times more than our US counterpart.

FUCK YOU CRBC!!!

[Jason @ Nov 29th 2007 12:15PM]

CRTC and Industry Canada

[Kizorblade @ Nov 29th 2007 11:55AM]

But what happens when they get over this 10% "magical" share? Do they lose it?

[TFein @ Dec 2nd 2007 8:24PM]

What do you want to be that the "new comer" who gets the prize gets bought by a company that was too big to compete for it?

[Kalen @ Nov 29th 2007 12:02PM]

Wait a second. Canada making a potentially good telecommunications choice? My god, the apocalyspe is much closer than I thought.


Maybe now I can finally stop paying Rogers $[ridiculous sums of money] each month just to use my cell phone.

[Thunderbuck @ Nov 29th 2007 12:06PM]

While I'm glad Prentice has announced that a big chunk of spectrum is being set aside for small players, I'm not THAT excited. We've seen it all before.

In the mid 90s they did the same thing, and got a couple of new, small competitors into the market. They were promptly bought up by Telus and Bell.

Not to say that it's not worth doing, but I'm just saying...

[Thunderbuck @ Nov 29th 2007 12:08PM]

No, they're just not allowed to bid in this particular auction NOW if they have over 10% of the market share.

[Mike @ Nov 29th 2007 3:16PM]

This seems like a good idea to me. Oh, boo fucking hoo Mr. Rogers; my asshole is still sore from the raping of the last invoice you sent me. No pity for you.

[Markus @ Nov 29th 2007 3:27PM]

Ten years ago Canada had among the most advanced telecommunications networks in the world. A decade later we've just had number portability for eight months and consumer rates suck compared to most nations. The federal government coddled the carriers and we blew our lead.

[Maciej @ Nov 29th 2007 4:24PM]

This move have been overdue by years and years. As for allowing a sole carrier (Rogers) to dictate the prices for the use of GSM bands in Canada is by far worse than anything you've heared about Microsoft being a monopoly...like dj-kenpo said, I'm not sure if it's $1000+ for 700mb but I wouldn't flinch if that were true...these pricks already charge $8 for call display, plus the $6.95 'access fee' what absolute non-sense. And to have the gaul to tell us this may not be good for customers...any competition in the GSM bands will be a godsend, since CDMA is well, I wouldn't say garbage but if you travel it's ball and chain. We could use some nicer phones here, I still see the e62 being pushed on consumers, I weep for them if they want to get online using any data plan. Text messaging charges should drop to 5 cents and when on God's green earth will we get a practical 3G network...

And it's only been recently in the past month that Rogers has been pushing ads for video calling...I don't even want to know what that's going to cost you...you're probably looking at your children right now and wondering...how much money will they fetch for medical experiments? (the last lines credit goes to Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear)

[Neebs @ Nov 29th 2007 4:25PM]

With all this auctioning of frequencies, it is now (in a white-collar court of law) to say

"THEY STOLE OUR MEGAHURTS"

[jamesrdoe @ Nov 29th 2007 4:40PM]

Well this is great. I don't own a cellphone and haven't for 7 years. One of the main reasons is the money grubbing corporations that nickel and dime you for every operation of your phone. I want to be charged like I am for the internet. One set fee, exactly the same every month (no overages) and I can do what I want with the service IE. call people, use the internet, text message etc. I think it's a complete joke that there are fees tied to virtually everything from caller id to ring tones. If I pay for something I don't want hidden costs and I don't want limits, I don't want to be charged extra just to use the functions they are offering me with the phone.

[ToniCipriani @ Nov 29th 2007 5:48PM]

It was wrong in the first place to approve the Fido-Rogers buyout. They should've let someone else buy it and keep it two _real competitors_. Now Rogers is just using Fido to rip people off, since they are the SOLE operator of GSM in Canada. Who in the right mind would've allowed that? At least in CDMA there's Bell and Telus.

[Sukhminder @ Nov 29th 2007 8:03PM]

Dear T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2, Orange and anyone else listening,

Please make a joint venture with any Canadian company to bring REAL telecommunication services to Canada.

Thank you

[Justin @ Nov 29th 2007 8:39PM]

I don't know what you are guys are thinking or talking about. Spewing such things out and ranting and raving like mad men. Sure I'll admit rates could be better in Canada. Having unlimited data plans would be awesome and having monthly costs lower would be nice, but it's not as bad as you are making it out to be. First of all if you want a data plan, just add the $65 data plan to your phone, it comes with 1GB. Secondly the video calling is on promo for only $5/month right now and you get unlimited local video calling for your entire 3 year term, I'd say that is a pretty good deal. No other carrier in north america offers video calling on their phones so canada's cellphone networks can't be as backwards and dated as you say. And in time they'll expand the 3G network outside of the major city centers and then everything will be wonderful. The way you guys go off you make it seem like it's the end of the world. Oh and one last thing comparing cellphones to the internet.....well that's not a good comparison at all. No carrier in the world offers unlimited everything for a flat monthly fee. We live in a capitalistic society, they are there to make money and it's as simple as that. Besides everyone uses their phone differently so why should there be one fee, I can't believe someone actually could think like that.

[Rich @ Nov 29th 2007 10:15PM]

Bell has unlimited data plans for $75/month.. although, that may only be for connection cards :(

[Justin @ Nov 29th 2007 10:30PM]

Yeah I just looked it up. That's pretty cool, but I bet somewhere there is a limit. They say something about fair use so I'm sure if you started using the data too much they'd put a lock down on your account. It would be nice to just have an honest unlimited data plan though. Rogers new 3G network should have decent speeds and with handsets, especially the blackberries and windows mobile devices able to display full html, it doesn't take much to use up the data on a monthly plan. Hopefully they get their act together and improve things. One thing that drives me crazy about Rogers and Bell is how they both wait to see what the other company is doing and then they just match them. When will a wireless company come out with something amazing and just blow the competition away. I'll probably be dead before anything great like that ever happens, but I can dream, haha.

[Richard @ Nov 30th 2007 5:18AM]

I agree with you that Canada's cellular technology isn't so bad Justin, but the prices paid for all services are absurd. I'm not talking just bad, but completely abysmal. 65$ for 1GB? Where I am it's $10. Oh, and I can call Canada long distance from my cell and it's cheaper than making a local call in Canada on prepaid. I live on the otherside of the planet.

Finally your comment on capitalism. Consumers like capitalism too, because real capitalism allows anyone to enter the market, thus allowing for competition and lower prices. The bullshit Canadians have is not real capitalism, it's basically a three way dictatorship protected by the government.

[NewJohnny @ Nov 30th 2007 2:37AM]

Back in the 90s, Shaw Cable wouldn't allow you to connect a router in your home because it was 'stealing' internet from them, due to multiple computers. If they ever found out you had a network, they would bill you for each pc you had. God save us all if you were running a server farm. I remember calling tech support around '95 with a router question and they refused to help me. Eventually, they had to give in because everyone had a router.
This same mindset of greed and fear has gripped the wireless industry for longer than usual. I suspect it's because the consumer doesn't have the power to force change on them.

[Igor Popovic @ Nov 30th 2007 10:57AM]

I really hope this goes through, however I can see Rogers doing something evil and greedy to prevent smaller competition from stepping foot into the rink.

The general public here in Canada needs to step up as well, and put more pressure against Roger's outrageous and unfair ways! Rogers needs us to survive, not the other way around. So, shouldn't they be the ones bending over?