Auction Day 8: Shaw steps up fight for the West

Shaw Communications Inc. is pushing hard to get as much spectrum as possible in the West and it's willing to take on provincial powerhouses in Manitoba and Saskatchewan to do it. In Saskatchewan where the Roughriders are in a bit of a rebuilding phase after reaching the pinnacle of football in Canada and then losing their star quarterback, Shaw seems to want to extend that to the provincial Crown corp. The Alberta-based company (not sure if CEO Jim Shaw cheers for the Stampeders or the Eskimos) appeared to come out of nowhere with all-out blitz of SaskTel on its home turf,recovering the prized D-band 10 MHz properties of Regina, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw. SaskTel had held the two latter licences since Round 15 and secured the Queen City's bandwidth in Round 25. SaskTel took a timeout in Thursday's last round, deciding not to come back up the middle to regain control of the three licences. This will be an interesting battle to watch unfold as the two could become bitter rivals in the Prairie province as Shaw expands into throughout SaskTel's traditional haven. MTS Allstream was also part of Shaw's offensive strategy and found itself playing defence most of the day, on more than one front. The two companies traded standing high bidder status on the 20 MHz B-band licence covering Manitoba. The Manitoba wireless operator was also in a battle with Globalive Communications for a piece of the Red River province. The Yak Communications operator made a play for the 10 MHz C-band covering Manitoba as well as the 10 MHz D-band Winnipeg. MTS had secured the latter property in Round 20, but has been in a dog fight to keep it since the early part of Thursday. Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises Wireless Inc. (DAVE) and Globalive appeared to have changed strategy to a certain degree with both just trying to get licences. While this may not have been a good strategy under the old rules because there were no assurances that roaming agreements with any or all of the incumbent wireless operators would be reached, today the rules make roaming mandatory. Currently, a bidder, if successful in getting spectrum, knows it will be able to offer services nationally from the get go because of new rules. While the agreements still have to be negotiated, the incumbent wireless carriers simply can't refuse. Despite these battles and some others, bidding on Day 8 slowed down even more. After total standing high bids increased $300 million on Wednesday and $460 million on Tuesday, total standing high bids increased approximately $200 million to bring the overall value of the auction to a little more than $3 billion.

Auction Day 8: Shaw steps up fight for the West

News | 06/06/2008 11:25 am EDT

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