On September 23rd, Industry Canada released a list of 15 bidders who submitted applications to be included into the auction. Many of the usual suspected were present — Rogers, Bell, TELUS, Videotron, SaskTel, Globalive and MTS — but there were also some newbies on the list, namely John Bitove’s Feenix Wireless, Vecima Networks and the Catalyst Capital Group.
The list quickly fell to 14 bidders as BH Wave Acquisition Corporation (Birch Hill) withdrew their application. Industry Canada has now published the final list of qualified bidders and revealed a couple more companies dropped out, specifically Vecima Networks Inc. and 1770129 Alberta Inc.
It’s hopeful that this final group of bidders will bring more competition to the Canadian wireless market. The 2008 spectrum auction — which brought in WIND Mobile, Mobilicity and Public Mobile — lasted 8 weeks and the government grossed $4,254,710,327. Many analysts are projecting this auction to raise a couple billion dollars.
The 700 MHz auction starts on January 14th, 2014. Here’s the updated list:
- Bell Mobility Inc.
- Bragg Communications Incorporated
- Feenix Wireless Inc.
- Globalive Wireless Management Corp.
- MTS Inc.
- Novus Wireless Inc.
- Rogers Communications Partnership
- Saskatchewan Telecommunications
- TBayTel
- TELUS Communications Company
The Catalyst Capital Group Inc.- Vidéotron
Source: Industry Canada
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