‘New entrants need to find ways to work together’: Lacavera

OTTAWA — Wind Mobile chairman Anthony Lacavera said Wednesday there is still the possibility of a deal between his company and wireless competitors such as Mobilicity or Quebecor Inc.-owned Videotron to build a national alternative to the incumbent carriers. “It doesn't make a lot of sense for us as small new entrants to also compete with each other,” he said in an interview with The Wire Report Wednesday before speaking at an Ottawa event called Startup Canada Day on the Hill. “The way that the market's shaking out now, there's still potential for that. It hasn't happened yet, but there's still the potential.” New court documents from Mobilicity’s bankruptcy-protection case shows it has been in contact with “several parties”in recent months regarding a sale, merger or partnership. Lacavera would not provide any new information on any talks about such a deal, but emphasized that his company is open to the idea. He said it could come in many forms, either as a simple acquisition, merger or some other form of partnership. “New entrants need to find ways to work together, and that could mean a lot of things,” he said. “Whatever form that takes, I think there's lots of ways to skin a cat.” Lacavera said it was clear that Wind had established itself as the fourth-carrier alternative to BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, while Quebecor had taken on such a role in Quebec and Bragg Communications Inc.-owned Eastlink has served a similar function in the Maritimes. Wind has no interest into expanding into those other markets, Lacavera said. “Our business plan is a fourth-carrier business plan,” he said. “In other provinces, there really isn't the opportunity for us at this time. In each case, our place in the market has been taken by those very strong competitors.” For the time being, Lacavera said, Wind needs to move to address existing customer demand on its network. For that, he said, the company needs more spectrum to implement an LTE network to replace its current HSPA+ offering. “We have enough spectrum for one or the other; it’s a quantity issue,” he said, echoing his remarks from earlier this year at the Canadian Telecom Summit, where he said the company coveted unused spectrum currently held by Quebecor and Shaw Communications Inc., among others. Lacavera, who left the CEO position at Wind on Oct. 27 after three years in the top job and now remains chairman, said the company is on the right track after the buyout of European majority owner VimpelCom Ltd. announced Sept. 16 that made him the top shareholder and brought in new capital from Toronto investment firm West Face Capital Inc., among others. Wind chief regulatory officer Simon Lockie confirmed by email that the purchase closed on Tuesday. The company is on track to hit 800,000 subscribers by the end of the year, Lacavera said, and the new backers and funding put it on “a very good trajectory.” “Obviously as we grow, and we now have the capital to grow, we need to expand our network and continue to roll out the latest technologies,” he said. “What this new capitalization does for us is give us the resources to roll out an LTE network, which we all know is the future of wireless.” Lacavera did not say whether Wind would participate in the upcoming AWS-3 and 2500 MHz spectrum auctions, only noting that there are “many potential sources”for the spectrum it needs to run LTE. “We’re assessing all of those alternatives,” he said. Wind’s network is running well today, Lacavera said, and the company is far from a crisis in capacity. However, he said he needs to prepare as consumers increasing amounts of data for streaming video and other large downloads. “We need more spectrum in order to be able to build out our business plan and continue to offer a choice in wireless long-term in our markets,” he said. “The network is great, the network is solid. But three to five years from now, we need to be significantly expanded to meet the anticipated demand and growth in mobile Internet.” — With reporting by Peter Henderson at phenderson@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

‘New entrants need to find ways to work together’: Lacavera

News | 11/26/2014 11:53 pm EST

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