It's official now: Tony Lacavera out as CEO, placed as "honorary chairman"

[Jonavin]

Rogers already has 20mhz of AWS spectrum for every region in Canada, including Quebec. That's more than Mobilicity or WIND has in most regions; in some cases more than both combined. Acquiring more AWS spectrum is largely to prevent competition.

In any case with Tony out, people are predicting it's a buyout of fire ring, but nobody thinks it was always Tony's exit strategy all along? Just that the amount he gets is based on performance, but even if he had 1.5 subs, he'd still be stepping out today.

[ShanghaiKid]

Interesting. It makes sense that Rogers would start acquiring AWS spectrum if they are planning on buying WIND. It makes WIND less attractive to the other two that Rogers already had the spectrum required for national expansion.

In the short term it will be great to get grandfathered on the rogers network with a WIND plan, on the other hand in the long run we would all eventually pay more.

Ideally some deep pocket foreign carrier buys WIND and expands the service.

This could purely be a defensive move by Rogers if they end up buying Wind, Bell and Telus act as one and by the time the 700Mhz Auction happens they would be able to combine the spectrum they purchase and end up having more available than Rogers. Maybe somebody can step in and explain this better than me, having a 20Mhz Block + 20Mhz Block allows them to offer faster speeds than just having a 20MHz Block.

There was mention in the article about the Shaw purchase as well so that would cover them for the Western Provinces so they can compete with Bellus, a Wind purchase would cover them for the rest of Canada, who knows, much like the article, pure speculation.

[mr.rhtuner]

Interesting. It makes sense that Rogers would start acquiring AWS spectrum if they are planning on buying WIND. It makes WIND less attractive to the other two that Rogers already had the spectrum required for national expansion.

In the short term it will be great to get grandfathered on the rogers network with a WIND plan, on the other hand in the long run we would all eventually pay more.

Ideally some deep pocket foreign carrier buys WIND and expands the service.

Jesus F christ, don't you bring that **** into this thread with thoughts of god dam Rogers buying Wind....that's **** I don't need to hear lol

[rodtaylor]

Tony got booted from his "own" company. But Wind is still Canadian to the die hard fans.

Tony made a small fortune for 5 years of effort. I think he'll be okay with it.

[millergd]

I think the single most baffling decision that WIND/Lacavera made in its 3.5 year existence was ousting Ken Campbell who had the smarts and experience that WIND desperately needed

Look at it not from the threats/power angle but from who controls the puppet strings: implanting a kid in his middle-30's to be the shill of the Egyptian/Russian puppeteers. Tony was not a pace setter, but rather the dog's chew toy in the Orascom/Wind business arrangement. And chewed up he got.

My intuitive (an unqualified) hunch is that the Conservatives are quietly walking away from their effort to facilitate new entrant competition in the Wireless space, and will make the necessary accommodations to enable a Wind sale to Robellus on accelerated terms. The LTE auction will be in the first 6 months of 2013 will be a telling sign of how things unfold. One certianty is that Wind's final bid will probably be no more than $1.00.

~millergd~

[Mann Incognito]

If Orascom and Vimplecom end up wanting to give it a go in Canada, I can't think of a more qualified or welcome figure as Ken Campbell. It would do them some good to have a person who has great respect in the industry across the board, who knows the Canadian market and is pro customer. On the other hand if all they intend to do is sell off then a plastic nodding dog will do.

I think my prediction is similar to others. Take over complete control but wait until March 2014 to sell, that way you can have the big boys play as well, and who knows, maybe, just maybe, WIND is able to turn the ship around just enough to generate some excitement. I said "some". Personally, I'd love to see Campbell back. If anyone can turn this turd into a diamond, it's him, but I just don't see it happening.

[Mr Mystery]

Just wait for the auction, if wind doesn't bid theyll be for sale at year 2014.

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[Shoephone]

If Rogers or Bellus are interested in buying the spectrum, it means the end of AWS HSPA ... because all three are using the same AWS for LTE. You can't do both at one time. That would effectively render useless every device WIND or Mobilicity has in the hands of consumers. And surely Robellus do not want WIND for its customers as most can take off in 30 days.

Orascom's best hope is to build with what they've got. But there is another cliff down the road: AWS HSPA handsets will dry up in the next couple of years as T-Mobile no longer needs devices serving this spectrum.

[403808]

Just wait for the auction, if wind doesn't bid theyll be for sale at year 2014.

I think that's a very fair assessment.

[dtong22]

Just wait for the auction, if wind doesn't bid theyll be for sale at year 2014.

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Interesting development if that is to happen.
Should we rejoice in the demise of the underdog?
Should we give a hand to the underdog by telling people around us that Wind is the competition we should encourage?
Should we rejoice in the big three maintaining the cartel and 95% monopoly of the cell market?
Should we rejoice in rejoining the big three by forking over at $80 a month per person for the crap service we are getting?

Daniel

[2K2SilverCivicS]

Now that WIND officially has "deep pockets" (subject to CRTC approval), the next steps are for them to buy Mobilicity and to get summa dat yummy 700MHz spectrum.

Id say forget about the AWS spectrum and spend more money bidding on the 700mhz... if VimpleCom can secure enough 700mhz spectrum, the AWS they have will be used as a fallback... they dont need a lot of it...


Bet you anything Robelus will make a big stinky about this... they scared coz they have someone with deep pockets in play...
BTW, how are VimpleCom's cell plans in europe? are they bad?

[icemasta]

You can't do both at one time. That would effectively render useless every device WIND or Mobilicity has in the hands of consumers.

Not necessarily. Most, if not all, AWS handsets can work on Rogers GSM network on Edge. Not useless but definitely a step back from current 3G.

[FTW]

Jesus F christ, don't you bring that **** into this thread with thoughts of god dam Rogers buying Wind....that's **** I don't need to hear lol

To be honest I agree with you. Vimpelcom isn't interested in selling. I can't see it happening. They fought to hard to see.

In truth I think Tony's departure has more to do with him liking to be in startups. I don't think he is really a day to day kind of CEO. Then again, maybe it was just like the 3 envelopes joke and it was time to leave

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[will888]

I sense that Wind is at the fish or cut bait juncture in the game. More than likely, they will probably exit, stage left. Given the size of Wind and the relatively small number of subs and low ARPU, they must be bleeding red from every orifice. If the useless AWS spectrum that the new entrants paid for was expensive, wait until the big fight over the 700 Mhz spectrum. While Wind is backed by deep pockets, these people are still business men. They are not going to try and fill in a bottomless pit with money. I am not sure there is the resolve to sink probably a few B$ to buy and deploy 700 Mhz. It would be like starting all over. It is an extreme slope to climb twice in a short period of time.

It is natural to pontificate whether it was Tony's fault or not his fault, we gotta point some fingers at the Feds. The Feds really screwed the new entrants by burdening them with the extreme cost on the useless AWS spectrum. Putting the new entrants deep in the hole right out of the gates is no way to foster competition. There is no correlation between competition in wireless and votes at the ballot box. The root cause of the failure of the new entrants starts with the Feds.

[nuclearbroccoli]

That would effectively render useless every device WIND or Mobilicity has in the hands of consumers.

I get your point, but not entirely accurate. Not every device.
Just sayin.

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