星岛日报/加国其中两家小型手机公司Wind Mobile及Public Mobile表示，若果当局没有预留频谱空间给诸如它们两家公司这类新营办商的话，两者便有可能杯葛联邦政府举行的下一次无线电频谱拍卖。Wind Mobile及Public Mobile极须得到该些无线电频谱，藉以扩大它们本身的无线网络。
Wind Mobile的拉加维拿(Anthony Lacavera)周一表示：“我们不会自寻短见。”他续称：“我们不会走出来，尝试竞投一些我们全无取胜机会的东西。”
拉加维拿指出，诸如他本身Wind Mobile等较小型手机公司，将会轻易被诸如罗渣士(Rogers)及研科(Telus)等大型手机营办商击退。有关情况对促进无线业界竞争毫无帮助。拉加维拿表示，Wind Mobile须要得到新的无线电频谱，藉以建设一个使用长期演进(Long-Term Evolution，简称LTE)科技的更快速、更先进无线网络，以及操作各种最新款手机。
料数周内宣布拍卖规则
一般预期联邦工业部长巴棣司(Christian Paradis)将在未来数周内宣布拍卖该个700兆赫(700-megahertz)频带的相关规则。
该个频谱将可容许手机通话能在升降机内、大城市的地下停地场深处以及近郊地区阁楼位置如常进行。它亦可在乡郊地区提供更佳及更负担得起的覆盖范围，原因手机营办商可利用较少手机发射站来提供所需覆盖。
Public Mobile策略及业务副总裁柯比(Bruce Kirby)表示，若果新加入市场的手机公司无力从它们的较大竞争对手那里成功投得新的无线电频谱的话，它们便无法在加国乡郊地区扩充业务。柯比表示：“若果当局订出的规则是令大家无法合理地进行竞逐以及拥有公平机会夺得频谱的话，大家便不值得花钱参与竞投拍卖。”
基于政府筹备拍卖以及各无线营办商做好准备功夫及筹措资金均需要时间，因此该个无线电频谱拍卖会最快也要在今年底或2013年才举行。
罗渣士曾经表示，反对当局将任何无线电频谱拨留给新加入市场的营办商，藉以改善及扩大它们本身的无线网络。研科早前建议，须为下一次拍卖设定频谱上限。
联邦工业部制订拍卖规则时，亦须处理电讯公司的外资拥有权限制等问题。
资料来源：加通社
Small cellphone players Wind Mobile, Public Mobile may boycott spectrum auction
By LuAnn LaSalle, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL – Wind Mobile and Public Mobile — two of Canada’s smallest cellphone companies — are threatening to sit out the next federal auction of radio waves needed to expand their wireless networks if space isn’t set aside for new players like themselves.
“We’re not suicidal,” Wind Mobile’s Anthony Lacavera said Monday.
“We’re not going to go out and try to bid on something we have zero chance of winning.”
Lacavera said smaller cellphone companies like his own will be outbid by established players like Rogers (TSX:RCI-B.TO – News), Bell (TSX:BCE.TO – News) and Telus (TSX:T), which won’t help competition in the wireless industry.
Wind Mobile needs the new radio frequencies to build a faster, more advanced wireless network that uses Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology and handles the latest smartphones, said Lacavera, chairman and CEO.
Federal Industry Minister Christian Paradis is expected in the coming weeks to announce rules for the auction of the 700-megahertz band, known as the “beach front property” of the airwaves for its reach.
The new spectrum has the ability to allow cellphone calls in elevators, deep in underground parking lots in big cities and in basements and attics in suburban areas. The frequencies, made available by the switch to digital television signals, also provide better and more affordable coverage in rural Canada because fewer cellphone towers are needed to provide coverage.
Bruce Kirby, vice-president of strategy and business development for Public Mobile, said if the new cellphone companies can’t win some of the new radio spectrum, they won’t be able to expand into rural Canada.
“If the rules are structured in a way that you can’t reasonably compete and have a fair chance of winning spectrum, it’s not worth spending the money to go into it,” Kirby said.
“What we won’t be able to do is build rural areas. You will end up being constrained in terms of the size of the market that you can effectively address.”
Rural Canada won’t have the same level of competition without radio waves being set aside for new players, Kirby said from Toronto.
“Without that competition, Bell, Rogers and Telus will never even contemplate offering smaller markets and rural areas the kind of plans they now offer precisely where the new entrants compete against them,” he said of big market competition.
The auction of the spectrum isn’t expected until late this year or 2013, given the time it will take for the government to organize the auction and for wireless companies to get ready and secure financing.
In 2008, the federal government set aside radio spectrum for newcomers opening up Canada’s cellphone industry to more competition and raising more than $4 billion for federal coffers.
The auction saw the debut of Wind Mobile, Public Mobile, Mobilicity and Quebec-based Videotron (TSX:QBR-B.TO – News) all launch into the cellphone market.
Kirby said foreign ownership restrictions should be removed on all telecom companies, but as a first step it should be removed from smaller companies with a 10 per cent or less market share.
“By far the worst thing the government can do is say it’s too complicated so we’re not going to do it for anybody until we can solve it for everybody.”
Rogers has said it’s opposed to any radio waves being set aside for the new players and Telus has proposed spectrum caps for the next auction.
Telecom analyst Iain Grant said competition is restricted to large cities because that’s where the new cellphone players and the alternative brands established by Rogers, Bell and Telus that compete against them are located.
Grant said rules for both the auction and foreign ownership of telecom companies need to be settled at the same time by the federal government.
“If we lessen the restrictions on foreign investment, more Canadians will feel the benefit of competition,” said Grant, managing director of the Seaboard Group Inc.
“If we have foreign investment, then the problems that the new entrants may have in mustering capital go away,” he said.
In 2010, the Conservative government pledged to open up foreign ownership in the telecom industry.
Ottawa has already outlined three options on easing foreign ownership restrictions — removing all restrictions, increasing the limit of foreign investment above the current direct and indirect investment total of 46.7 per cent to 49 per cent, or allow non-Canadians to own 100 per cent of telecom companies that have a 10 per cent market share or less.
