Auction Day 30: Industry Canada pushing for end to auction as battles continue

Industry Canada appears anxious to hasten the end of its spectrum auction, now in its seventh week of bidding, by allowing more daily rounds and higher bids."The percentage bid increment will be changed to 6% beginning with round 218 at 9:00 on July 9, 2008. The absolute increment will remain at $2000/point," read the note to auction participants. The department had previously lowered the bid increment from 8% to 4% on June 11.Increasing the bid increment should serve notice to the remaining bidders fighting for spectrum that Industry Canada wants this auction to end. The department also announced that it would be pushing the number of rounds per day to 12 from 10.Ongoing battles shift, companies remain the sameWhile Globalive Communications, SaskTel, Celluworld, Canquest and Rich Telecom continue to battle for pieces of core Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum, Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises Wireless (DAVE) wrestled control of the 10 MHz D-band Red Deer licence from Rich Telecom in Round 208.Celluworld made progress on Tuesday, securing the rights to the Pembroke D-band property after Globalive stopped bidding on it in Round 208. But the Yak Communications owner returned later in day, forcing Celluworld to bid on the Cornwall D-band licence.Tuesday also saw SaskTel give up on the Far North B-band licence, letting Globalive take control of it. But the provincial Crown corp didn't give up on acquiring additional spectrum, bidding on the 10 MHz C-band licences of Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton in Round 216.Why is SaskTel bidding on spectrum outside of Saskatchewan? It's unclear at this point, but the company could be sending Globalive a message that if it wants the Far North, then it won't get a full 10 MHz of bandwidth across Atlantic Canada.Another possibility could be that SaskTel is simply trying to acquire bandwidth to later use in a trade to get additional spectrum in the Prairie province. The company has 40 MHz across the Regina and Moose Jaw areas, but only has 20 MHz covering the Saskatoon licence.

Auction Day 30: Industry Canada pushing for end to auction as battles continue

News | July 9, 2008

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