Auction Day 6: Bragg makes its move

Round 19 saw a major development today in Industry Canada's Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum auction with Bragg Communications making the jump from the big properties to Atlantic Canada and small town Ontario. Report on Wireless had previously predicted that the parent company of EastLink was bidding on properties such as Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa simply to retain its eligibility points until the time was right to move its intended targets. Well that move came yesterday, the sixth day of bidding, when EastLink used a waiver in round 18 to conserve its points and then subsequently moved its points from big city Ontario to the lesser populated regions in the province and to Atlantic Canada. At the end of round 19, the cable and telephony operator blanketed Altantic Canada with standing high bids on the B-band 20 MHz set-aside spectrum. But EastLink wasn't done as it bid on the 20 MHz A-band licences covering Newfoundland and Labrador and the three New Brunswick serving areas. In addition EastLink decided to unseat 768812 Ontario Inc. for the Sudbury A-band licence and Telus for the A-band covering Grand Prairie AB. Both companies had previously held those licences beginning in rounds 1 and 2, respectively. Activity from Bell Mobility was also a big part of the day as the company appeared to be falling back from its wireless ILEC brethren. Rounds 17 and 19 saw the telecom giant win standing high bidder on a large number of licences, allowing it surge ahead of its two rivals in terms of the value standing high bids and numbers of licences at the end of Round 19. This was due in part to a renewed battle for about a dozen licences in Ontario from Pembroke in the East down the Golden Horseshoe. Bell is fighting hard to capture more spectrum in the west and is battling Novus Wireless Inc. over the 10 MHz E-band licences in Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo. Bell had been standing high bidder on the latter two since rounds 5 and 3 respectively. Seesaw battle continuingBut as EastLink and Bell Mobility were the big movers in the early part of afternoon bidding, Round 20 was the yang to the previous round's yin, demonstrating that this auction is far from over. EastLink lost some ground as both Telus Mobility and Roger Communications opted to keep up the fight for licences in Atlantic Canada and Ontario. Bell lost ground primarily in British Columbia and Alberta in the day's last round, being unseated as high bidder on the Vancouver and Nanaimo E-band licences by Telus as well as by Rogers in the A-band Calgary and Edmonton licences. At the end of Day 6, Rogers had leaped ahead of the pack with a whopping $713 million in standing high bids, covering 19 licences. Bell is still in the thick of things with 42 standing high bids totaling $414 million. As RoW noted yesterday, total standing high bids was expected to surpass $2.5 billion and it did, reaching $2.54 billion. With renewed battles in the most populated provinces, in addition to EastLink's move to Atlantic Canada, bidding will likely remain robust, potentially pushing the auction haul above $3 billion by the end of Day 7.

Auction Day 6: Bragg makes its move

News | 06/04/2008 11:11 am EDT

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