Wind Secures $500 million+ for 700mhz auction

**skhan27** · 09-29-2011, 02:43 PM

also over 400k subs

http://mobilesyrup.com/2011/09/29/wi...report-claims/

**Mr Mystery** · 09-29-2011, 02:48 PM

Originally Posted by skhan27

also over 400k subs

http://mobilesyrup.com/2011/09/29/wi...report-claims/

Nice however; if Spectrum is not put aside for the new guys and this being announced in the open would it be enough to play with the Big 3 in an open auction?

**brownk2j** · 09-29-2011, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by Mr Mystery

Nice however; if Spectrum is not put aside for the new guys and this being announced in the open would it be enough to play with the Big 3 in an open auction?

Exactly. If anything, this may reinforce the Big 3's position that an entirely "open" auction is needed. $500 million got them mostly 10 mhz AWS chunks across the country in 2008--I imagine they'd need more for this auction?

**Mann Incognito** · 09-29-2011, 02:53 PM

Fuller report from National Post: http://business.financialpost.com/20...more-airwaves/

Obviously good news but there's politicking in the conditions for the money, that a certain portion of the sprectrum has to be set aside for the new players. With Public Mobile out of the picture, there's just no way they'll secure the financing, that just leaves WIND and Mobilicity. Unfortunately, it's going to be tough for Mobilicity to come up with that sort of financing. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's going to be a hard slog.

So, assuming WIND gets a portion of the spectrum put to one side and Mobi bows out of the auction they could up being the only one bidding outside of Quebec!

**mkomkomko** · 09-29-2011, 02:57 PM

Really awesome news. Now the other half of the plan has to come into place, the obvious issue of setting some aside for new entrants...

**Mr Mystery** · 09-29-2011, 03:00 PM

Originally Posted by mkomkomko

Really awesome news. Now the other half of the plan has to come into place, the obvious issue of setting some aside for new entrants...

The government almost has no choice but too though, if they do not then the new guys are done and the governments plan for a competitive marketplace fails.

**Guest 178** · 09-29-2011, 03:28 PM

Were it not for Vimpelcom, WIND could not at all have raised 500M. Also OT, but I wonder why WIND can't get any better handsets with Vimpelcom behind them.

Is it that hard for Vimpelcom to set agreements that say they need 1M Xperia's and 500,000 AWS variants of the phone? Obv. just using the xperia as an example.

Here's to hoping WIND remains strong tho!

**Tendenzi** · 09-29-2011, 03:58 PM

Almost certainly sucks for the. Ew entrants as wind has all this secured financing coming their way. What's the point of setting any aside again only to guarantee wind gets almost all of it!

**mkomkomko** · 09-29-2011, 05:14 PM

This reminds me of something I wanted to ask, maybe someone here knows the answer to this. How long do you normally think it would take from the end of the auction to an actual LTE rollout in Wind's biggest market(s)? Is this a months thing or a year thing?

**arikah** · 09-29-2011, 05:27 PM

Year scale. The auction isn't until next year, and no doubt there will be hitches/debates/legal junk to follow or precede it. The actual rollout should be cleaner than the 1700 spec though, because I think that the existing 700mhz transmitters from the old UHF system are still intact (they might have torn down a few?), AND 700mhz penetrates buildings far better and requires fewer tower clusters than 1700mhz.

**Mann Incognito** · 09-29-2011, 05:27 PM

I think I'm correct in saying that WIND's towers were all built LTE ready, now all they need is the spectrum. I have no idea how quick the turnaround on these things is, someone far more qualified will know I'm sure, but the initial launch a couple of years ago didn't seem to take that long one the go-ahead had been given.

**keyzink** · 09-29-2011, 07:13 PM

Remember that the biggest stumbling block carriers face in launching a network, and something not entirely in their control, is acquiring cell sites. Wind has those already (although on some towers they share might not have room for more antenna equipment), so it depends on how quickly Wind wants to launch LTE really. They can do it in a few months if they are aggressive.

**JustinCredible** · 09-29-2011, 07:19 PM

WIND's equipment is LTE ready and just needs to flip a switch, to put it simply, a software upgrade and the necessary spectrum.

**chloride228** · 09-29-2011, 08:29 PM

I think Telus should get all the 700mhz spectrum since they are the smallest NATIONAL carrier that has a RECORD of providing ubiquitous, reliable service in rural areas.

**rodtaylor** · 09-29-2011, 08:39 PM

Hmm.. I could see Wind paying $80M for Shaws AWS spectrum (40Mhz in the west; enough for LTE) and focusing the additional $420M only on Quebec and key Ontario locations like Toronto.

Videotron must have significantly more than 400,000 customers (new entrants to have 2Million total by end of year) and can probably afford $500M to sweep Quebec again.