Auction Day 9: Bitove’s DAVE scales back ambitions

John Bitove and his money man Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen took a hit in eligibility points on Friday as Data and Audio-Visual Enterprises Wireless Inc. dropped 146 in Round 31 or about 30% of its remaining bidding eligibility. And it's only going to get harder for DAVE and the other new entrants as the auction heads into its second stage and bidders have to remain active on 90% of their eligibility points. At the end of Round 34, the new entrant wannabe had standing high bids totaling $193.5 million covering about 13.4 million people. Of particular note in its licence holdings, DAVE has held the set aside 10 MHz C-band for Southern Ontario since Round 16. The company also took control of the 10 MHz D-band licences covering Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver in Round 30. Highly touted after it was revealed that the Microsoft co-founder was part of the money syndicate behind Bitove's latest venture, DAVE began hemorrhaging eligibility points on Day 4 of the auction. The company started with enough points to get a sufficient amount of spectrum in the more populated regions of the country. At one point, it was even in a dog fight for a slice of Southern Ontario against the wireless ILECs and new entrants Globalive Communications and Vidéotron ltée. Globalive, meanwhile, is holding its own and appears in the auction for the long haul. Early on, the Yak Communications owner bid aggressively on the most populated regions of the country and has continued to do so as the auction rolls along. In addition to provincial licences in the West, it has been trying to secure a licence covering Ottawa as well as those in small town Ontario and Quebec. On all fronts, Globalive is fighting either a wireless ILEC or the aggressive bidding from Vidéotron, Bell Mobility and others. As the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) auction heads into its third week and with bidding having slowed considerably, the move to the second stage should help bring the auction to a close. With most of the major fights now over, a clear picture is emerging of who will win new spectrum licences. There are still some skirmishes taking place, including Shaw Communications' fight with SaskTel and MTS Allstream for spectrum in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The bandwidth battle isn't yet over for the incumbent wireless as they continue to compete against new entrants for some prized pieces of spectrum. Rogers Communications, for example, which has nearly locked up the entire 20 MHz A-band licences, is still fighting with Vidéotron and SaskTel for some of the smaller properties. Telus Mobility has found itself vying for control of some smaller properties in the West. In Winnipeg and Brandon, the "Future is Friendly" carrier is battling Shaw for the 20 MHz F-band on one hand and Globalive for the 10 MHz E-band properties. The Big Three continue to lead the auction in terms of number of licences under their control. Combined, Bell, Rogers and Telus have standing high bids worth approximately $1.7 billion more than half of the $3.15 billion in total standing high bids by all participants. Below is a list of the top 10 bidders by total standing high bids. TELUS Communications Company$ 609,931,456 54Rogers Communications Inc.$ 655,734,722 51Bell Mobility Inc.$ 470,099,159 449193-2962 Québec Inc. (Vidéotron)$ 395,975,795 271380057 Alberta Ltd. (Shaw) $ 237,163,749 25Bragg Communications Inc.$ 20,311,674 21Globalive Wireless LP$ 499,879,500 16Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises Wireless Inc.$ 193,590,000 46934242 Canada Ltd. (MTS)$ 7,013,750 3SaskTel$ 7,380,000 3Blue Canada Wireless Inc.$ 4,640,000 3

Auction Day 9: Bitove’s DAVE scales back ambitions

News | 06/09/2008 12:50 pm EDT

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