Rogers Communications Inc. said in a press release late Thursday afternoon that its acquisitions of Mobilicity and wireless spectrum from Shaw Communications Inc. have received all necessary approvals and are now closed. Both deals were announced June 24. Industry Canada signalled its approval for both transactions that day, and the Ontario Superior Court, which had been overseeing Mobilicity’s bankruptcy-protection since September 2013, also gave it the go-ahead. Approval from the Competition Bureau was still pending at the time. Rogers has said it agreed to pay $440 million for...
Industry Canada’s approval of Rogers Communications Inc.’s bid to buy Mobilicity, as well a deal for Rogers to acquire spectrum from Shaw Communications Inc., signals an improvement in the regulatory environment for large wireless providers, analysts said Wednesday. Industry Minister James Moore confirmed Wednesday afternoon the government has approved Rogers’ purchase of Mobilicity, which has been in bankruptcy protection since September 2013, as well as Rogers’...
Speculation that the federal government is poised to approve the acquisition of Mobilicity and its spectrum by Telus Corp. or Rogers Communications Inc. has some observers disagreeing whether this would represent a major departure...
Rogers Communications Inc. will launch its IPTV service at about the same time it starts adjusting to new rules that require service providers to provide skinny-basic TV packages for no more than $25...
New court documents show Mobilicity lost only 1,600 customers during the first four months of 2015 despite Wind Mobile’s offer of six months of free service to defectors from Mobilicity. An...
Canada's third wireless spectrum auction in a little more than a year is set to start Tuesday, and it is generally predicted to bring in far less money than the other two, though at least one...
The $1.2-billion lawsuit launched against the federal government by original backers of Mobilicity can proceed, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled Friday, according to a report in the Globe and Mail. The case was launched in September by New York-based investment firm Quadrangle Group LLC and John Bitove's Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises Investments Inc., who claimed the government lured Mobilicity into Canada's wireless market with promises that were later reneged upon, such as that spectrum from the 2008 AWS auction would be allowed to be sold to wireless incumbents after a five-year moratorium expired. The decision to let the suit proceed comes after the government...
Mobilicity might have been unable to raise the funds to bid in Tuesday’s AWS-3 spectrum auction because a $200-million financing deal fell through just minutes before the deadline, according to a report by the Financial...
Mobilicity is hoping that spectrum ownership in Canada after two upcoming auctions becomes diluted enough that the government changes course on its previous refusal to allow the sale of the company...
Wind Mobile had last-minute talks about a purchase of bankrupt carrier Mobilicity in advance of the Jan. 30 application deadline for bidding in the two upcoming spectrum auctions, according to a...
Catalyst Capital Group Inc., a secured creditor of wireless service provider Mobilicity, is asking for a court injunction that would prevent West Face Capital Inc., an investment firm that was part of the group that bought out...
Wind Mobile on Thursday confirmed its participation in the upcoming AWS-3 and 2500 MHz spectrum auctions. The registration deadline for both is Friday. The AWS-3 auction is set to begin on March 3 and the 2500 MHz auction will...
Mobilicity received court approval Wednesday to access up to $65 million in financing to participate in the AWS-3 auction in March. The approval from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice was confirmed by email by Mobilicity...
Mobilicity's intent to access up to $65 million in debt to participate in the upcoming AWS-3 auction has important implications for Wind Mobile, which would otherwise face no competition for the...
The latest report from the monitor appointed to oversee Mobilicity’s bankruptcy protection says the carrier will not participate in the upcoming 2500 MHz auction, although it is trying to raise funding to participate in the...
Analysts are divided on how two upcoming spectrum auctions will change Canada’s wireless industry as the deadline for registration looms at the end of January. The upcoming AWS-3 and 2500 MHz auctions are taking place against a backdrop of uncertainty as carriers await a decision from the CRTC on wholesale wireless access and fees, a decision that could change the fundamental economics of providing consumer wireless services. Drew McReynolds, a telecom analyst with RBC Dominion Securities, said predictions about the auctions are more difficult in the current climate. “The problem is, there’s so many moving parts,” he said in a phone interview. The AWS-3 auction...
Wind Mobile's offer of free wireless service to customers of Mobilicity, with unlimited data, text and calls for six months, could be an offensive move to help clear away competition for set-aside spectrum in the upcoming...
Cogeco Cable Inc. has quietly rolled out home spotting, or the use of multi-signal routers in people's homes to provide both private WiFi signals to residents and separate public signals to...
Wind Mobile's new chief executive says the carrier will become a "stronger fourth carrier" in the provinces where it already operates, but is unlikely to become a "national" wireless competitor to BCE Inc., Telus Corp. and Rogers Communications Inc. "I don't think we'll be a national...
A Federal Court judge has affirmed the government's authority to block transfers of wireless spectrum whenever it sees fit, though at least one telecom analyst says the government's reluctance to let incumbents accumulate...
Recent documents submitted in Mobilicity’s court-monitored bankruptcy process indicate private-equity company Catalyst Capital Group Inc. is anxious to see a new arrangement for the wireless carrier soon. A filing from Catalyst, a secured creditor in Mobilicity, cites Jan. 30 as a key date for having a restructuring plan finalized. That is the date to which Mobilicity's bankruptcy protection was recently extended, and is also the deadline for applications to bid in Industry Canada's AWS-3 spectrum auction, which is slated to be held in March. An affidavit from Catalyst chief...
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has approved Mobilicity’s request for an extension of bankruptcy protection until Jan. 30. A court filing, obtained from the wireless carrier’s public relations provider Longview...
Rogers Communications Inc. says the federal government has not yet informed it of a decision on whether it can buy wireless spectrum from Shaw Communications Inc. A report on the news website Cartt Thursday cited anonymous...
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...
Court documents filed in the bankruptcy protection case of wireless carrier Mobilicity suggest talks with other parties regarding a sale, merger or partnership are progressing and could materialize...
Catalyst Capital Group Inc. would help fund Mobilicity's purchase of new spectrum in the government's AWS-3 auction next year, its leader said in an interview with the Globe and Mail. An...
OTTAWA — Lawyers for Telus Corp. said Thursday they regretted the "foolish" decision to not dispute Industry Canada’s power over so-called deemed spectrum transfers when the...
As Wind Mobile’s chief operating officer, Pietro Cordova, steps into the CEO role vacated by Anthony Lacavera Monday, his top priority will be to put an LTE network in place, the outgoing CEO said in a phone interview....
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ruled against a supplier that was seeking millions of dollars in payment from Mobilicity, which has been in bankruptcy protection for more than a year. Amdocs Inc., a Missouri-based...
GATINEAU, Que. — Legislation introduced earlier this year that caps wholesale wireless roaming rates to what host carriers charge their own retail customers doesn't create the conditions necessary for smaller operators to compete, representatives from Wind Mobile and Mobilicity told the CRTC on Monday. It was the first day of a weeklong hearing looking into Canada's wholesale wireless market. Representatives from Wind and Mobilicity told the hearing that their entry into the market in 2009, after buying set-aside spectrum in the 2008 AWS auction, was hindered by expensive roaming rates. Legislation that came into effect in June capped these rates at a formula based on the...
Recent court filings show Amdocs Inc. is seeking almost $2.9 million in payments from Mobilicity. Amdocs, a Missouri-based provider of licensed billing, customer care, ordering and operational-support system products, said in a...
Mobilicity has been granted an extension of its creditor protection until Dec. 1, William Aziz, Mobilicity's chief restructuring officer, said in a statement Thursday. He said the order was granted by the Ontario Superior...
Mobilicity is asking for another extension to its creditor protection, telling the judge overseeing its bankruptcy that the carrier has removed cell towers and shut down its Vancouver sales office in...
In newly released documents Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp. and BCE Inc. all criticize the set-aside for new entrants in the upcoming AWS-3 auction, with Bell is asking the government to...
New details about the government’s push for new-entrant carriers in the 2008 AWS auction were revealed in a lawsuit filed this week against Industry Canada by two of the original investors in Mobilicity, alleging the government department is blocking the sale of the struggling carrier to Telus Corp. out of spite. In the statement of claim filed Thursday, Quadrangle Group LLC seeks $1.2 billion in damages, accusing the government of bad faith in failing to follow through on promises it...
University of Calgary economists Jeffrey Church and Andrew Wilkins are back at it, criticizing government attempts to bring more competition to Canada's wireless sector and insisting those efforts amount to a subsidization of non-viable companies by taxpayers with no justifiable benefit to consumers. In Church and...
The federal government on Monday announced another auction for wireless spectrum will be held next year and, like previous auctions, it will have rules meant to increase the viability of companies competing against the three incumbents. "They are bound and determined to get that fourth national carrier," Gregory...
Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc. on Thursday named four new vice-presidents that it said will help lead "the transformation of Canada's largest alternative telecommunications service provider." It said in a...
New-entrant wireless carrier Mobilicity is in a holding pattern after the collapse of a buyout deal with Telus Corp. that could harm its chances of being rescued from bankruptcy protection,...
Quebecor Inc. said explicitly Wednesday that it intends to become Canada's "fourth wireless competitor," though it needs "a fair and competitive federally regulated roaming...
TORONTO — Ongoing interventions by Industry Canada, the Competition Bureau and the CRTC into Canada’s wireless industry are likely to harm future investments by telecom companies, Brookings Institute economist Robert...
Former prime minister Brian Mulroney has been nominated to be chairman of Quebecor Inc.'s board of directors, according to a corporate filing the company made on Wednesday. Mulroney would replace Françoise Bertrand,...
Analysts speculated Wednesday about the possibility of Quebecor Inc. stepping up to purchase Mobilicity following a report that Telus Corp. has withdrawn its offer. An article, which appeared on the...
BCE Inc.'s Bell Mobility unit, in an intervention filed in the CRTC’s review of wholesale wireless services, said that meddling in the rates carriers charge to let other carriers use their network could affect the “vigorous competition” that exists in the wireless market. In its filing, made Thursday, Bell said the CRTC must strike “the right balance” between encouraging infrastructure owners to invest in new technologies and allowing competitors to access...
Wind Mobile said the first quarter of 2014 was its “best quarter ever” as it gained more than 25,000 subscribers and saw its average revenue per user jump to 12 per cent more than it was a year earlier. The company...
Analysts say a new advertising campaign by Wind Mobile that aims to pick up customers from Mobilicity and Public Mobile may be successful as the new-entrant carrier tries to capitalize on the woes of...
OTTAWA — Participants at a conference discussion about the wireless industry on Thursday blasted the federal government for its approach in trying to bring more competition to the sector, and a...
The $350-million bid by Telus Corp. for Mobilicity could set up a test of Industry Canada’s regulatory power over the sale of wireless spectrum and competition within the wireless industry,...
Mobilicity announced late Thursday night that it has reached a deal to be purchased by Telus Corp. for $350 million. Mobilicity, which has been under bankruptcy protection since September last year, said in a press release the transaction would need the approval of the Ontario Superior Court, the federal Competition Bureau, Industry Canada and debtholders. "The transaction is a good outcome from Mobilicity's restructuring efforts and extensive sales process," William Aziz, Mobilicity's chief restructuring officer, said in the release. "I am confident the transaction will serve the best interests of Mobilicity's customers and employees." Industry Canada had blocked an initial attempt by Telus to purchase Mobilicity in June of last year, and even after the...
Mobilicity, the wireless startup in bankruptcy protection, has been granted a fourth extension in its creditor protection while the company works on a potential sale, according to a court document filed on Friday. Last week, the...
Mobilicity, the startup wireless carrier in bankruptcy protection, will have information to share on its efforts to find a buyer in the “near term,” according to a court document filed...
William Aziz has resigned as a director of the board at Canada Bread Co. Ltd., the company said in a press release Monday. Aziz is president of BlueTree Advisors II Inc. and is currently serving as chief restructuring officer of...
Amdocs Inc. said in an affidavit filed this week in Mobilicity’s bankruptcy-protection proceedings that the wireless provider has made “incorrect” interpretations about the agreement...
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Tuesday said it has approved Mobilicity’s request for an extension of its creditor protection until March 31. This marks the third extension the...
Mobilicity is seeking to extend its creditor protection until March 31, according to a report on the website of its court-appointed monitor, Ernst & Young. The report from Ernst & Young, dated Feb. 20, recommends that the...
Mobilicity has filed an affidavit in court challenging claims for payment from one of its suppliers. Amdocs Inc. had filed an affidavit that asked for about $1.7 million in payments from the wireless carrier, which is currently...
Mobilicity will be asking for an extension of its creditor protection. An official involved in its court-monitored bankruptcy protection process told The Wire Report by phone on background that an affidavit was likely to be filed...
TeraGo Inc., a provider of online, data and voice services, said Tuesday it has appointed Joe Prodan as chief financial officer. Prodan formerly held this title for Mobilicity, the new-entrant wireless carrier that entered bankruptcy protection in September and is trying to find a buyer. TeraGo said in a release Prodan is replacing Bosco Chan, who held the chief financial officer’s job on an interim basis since May and will continue as the company’s vice-president of finance....
Telus Corp. and Quebecor Inc. are the leading bidders for Mobilicity, the new-entrant wireless carrier that’s been in bankruptcy protection since September, according to an article in the Globe...
Former Quebecor Inc. executive Luc Lavoie registered in December to lobby the federal government on mobile broadband licensing, the federal lobby registry shows. In a French-language registration filed with the lobby...
Wind Mobile’s chief executive says the company is surging in the absence of stable new entrant competitors, though experts warn it will face a “headwind” soon without access to 700...
The long-anticipated 700 MHz spectrum auction begins Tuesday, Jan 14. Among the rules set out by Industry Canada, each of the three incumbents, Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp. and BCE Inc., are each only allowed to acquire...
Mobilicity is asking the Ontario Superior Court to consider whether it could approve a transfer of the new entrant provider’s spectrum licences as part of its bankruptcy proceedings, and in the absence of an Industry Canada decision on any proposed spectrum transfer, court documents show. In an affidavit submitted to the province’s top court Monday as part of the company’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, William Aziz, Mobilicity’s chief restructuring officer, said...
Carriers still finding their way under the CRTC’s wireless code will face the rollout of 700 MHz spectrum, potential new-entrant consolidation and the recalibration of domestic roaming rates in 2014, in what is poised to be...
Mobilicity has received an extension until February for protection from creditors. The new-entrant wireless carrier in bankruptcy protection had asked the Ontario Superior Court to extend its protection from Dec. 20 to Feb. 18. Joel Shaffer, a spokesman from Longview Communications, representing Mobilicity, said in an email the extension was granted...
The government’s move to limit wholesale domestic roaming rates will have little impact on major wireless providers’ bottom lines, experts say, while not all agree on how much the move...
Mobilicity, the new-entrant carrier under bankruptcy protection, expects to end the year with more than 175,000 active subscribers and is spending cash at a slower pace than previously expected, court documents show. In a Dec. 12...
Globalive Wireless Management Corp., operator of Wind Mobile, is looking at buying Mobilicity because it needs more spectrum in order to roll out an LTE network, Wind CEO Anthony Lacavera said....
Struggling new entrant carrier Mobilicity is asking the Ontario Superior Court to supervise a sale of some or all of the company's assets as a potential alternative to a twice-rejected deal to sell itself to Telus Corp., court documents show. In an application filed last week as part of the company's ongoing bankruptcy-protection proceedings,...
Mobilicity’s management will continue to ask the federal government to approve a proposed deal to sell the company to Telus Corp. after the Tory government indicated last week that it would...
Mobilicity’s management says Catalyst Capital Group Inc. is trying to leverage a $60-million lending agreement to take control of the floundering new entrant carrier. Catalyst says it’s...
At first blush, Telus Corp.'s second run at trying to acquire new entrant Mobilicity sounds very familiar, even comically so. The Harper government very clearly said no the first time. If you ask twice, do you get a better answer? Or has so much changed since the first run that the question is now a different one? If you ask people involved in telecom how they expect the government to respond to Mobilicity's new application to Industry Canada for a sale to Telus—as confirmed by...
Mobilicity was more than half a billion dollars in debt when it filed for bankruptcy protection this week, and was losing nearly $4 million per month to continue operating, court documents show. “For the seven months ended...
Mobilicity’s future no longer appears simple, and it’s anything but unlimited. A little more than three years after the company launched its mobile service, promising consumers simple and unlimited wireless plans, the new entrant wireless provider is running out of money, creditors—and options....
New entrant carrier Dave Wireless Inc. postponed by a week a scheduled debtholders’ vote on its proposed recapitalization plan in order to consider “potential alternatives,” the...
Dave Wireless Inc.’s debtholders will vote next week on a plan to recapitalize the struggling new entrant wireless carrier, the company said on Friday. Dave Wireless, which operates as Mobilicity, said this month that it...
Telus Corp. avoided a $10 million, non-refundable loan by backing out of its $380-million deal to acquire Dave Wireless Inc. by a June 10 deadline, said Ted Woodhead, Telus’ senior vice-president of government and regulatory affairs. In a release Monday, Dave Wireless, operating as Mobilicity, said Telus officially cancelled its deal to acquire the new entrant wireless provider after Industry Minister Christian Paradis said last week he would not allow Telus to acquire Mobilicity's new entrant spectrum licences. Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, Telus would have been...
Dave Wireless Inc. will pursue a recapitalization plan after Telus Corp. withdrew its $380-million deal to acquire the company, the new entrant wireless provider said. In a release Monday, new entrant Dave...
OTTAWA, TORONTO—Industry Canada will block Telus Corp.'s proposed deal for Dave Wireless Inc.’s mobile spectrum, as well as any other proposal from an incumbent to acquire wireless...
Seven months after VimpelCom Ltd. filed an application to change control of Wind Mobile, Industry Canada still hasn't released a decision. VimpelCom, an international mobile operator based in Amsterdam, filed application last October with an expectation that the agreement would be approved within 45 days, and before an...
Rogers Communications Inc. will be better positioned to compete against rival incumbent wireless carriers BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. in the Quebec market under a new network-sharing agreement with...
The Ontario Superior Court approved Telus Corp.’s deal to purchase Dave Wireless Inc., operating as Mobilicity, for $380 million, the companies said. "Following on last week's vote in favour of the proposal by...
Telus Corp. has not pursued a false advertising case against new entrant carrier Mobilicity since a British Columbia court struck down the company’s request for an injunction against Mobilicity’s ads in December, Telus spokesman Shawn Hall said. Telus, which said this month it reached a $380 million deal to acquire Mobilicity (operated by...
Accelero Capital Holding's deal to purchase Allstream from Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. will give the company a cross-country fibre network that would provide backhaul support for mobile wireless services and bundled Internet, voice and mobile wireless contracts in the business market. That is, of course, if...
Telus Corp. would be on the hook for at least a $10 million non-refundable deposit to Mobilicity if its deal to acquire the new entrant carrier does not proceed after a June 10 deadline, the...
Wind Mobile is appealing to customers of fellow new entrant Mobilicity, operated by Dave Wireless Inc., to “switch to Wind” as Mobilicity waits to hear whether Industry Canada will approve its acquisition by Telus Corp. In a notice on Wind’s website, the company says it will offer “up to $365” in savings to Mobilicity customers who make the switch, with up to $40 off on their first monthly bill, a free Wind SIM card for their phone, and up to $300 in “service credits for add-ons and extras” such as unlimited voice features and Canada-wide calling....
Delays in Industry Canada's spectrum auction process are looking more likely by the day, analysts said. They said new wireless entrants will need more time to look at consolidation options after...
GATINEAU, Que.—Competition for wireless customers in the “bring your own device” market is intensifying as Telus Corp. and BCE Inc. offer discounted plans for customers with their own devices and Rogers Communications Inc. is looking at doing the same, company officials told CRTC commissioners at a hearing...
The Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) would be “willing and able” to enforce a future code of conduct for wireless carriers though it does not want additional powers to do so, the CCTS said. In regulatory documents filed with the commission this month, mobile carriers and consumer interest groups said the...
New entrant wireless carrier DAVE Wireless Inc. can continue airing ads about “unlimited” data packages and the limited nature of its competitors “unlimited” packages after British Columbia’s top...
New entrant wireless carrier DAVE Wireless Inc. will launch a countersuit against Telus Corp., arguing the incumbent telco uses false advertising in its promotions, said Stewart Lyons, the company’s president and CEO. “I think you’ll see a counterclaim on our part because I think we can find a lot of stuff that’s misleading in Telus’ advertising,” Lyons said in an interview Tuesday. “I don’t want to get too much more into that, unfortunately, but...
The CRTC should model its future code of conduct for wireless carriers on similar consumer wireless legislation passed in the Quebec legislature, Canada’s wireless carriers said. In regulatory...