Andrew Willis writes in a story called “Dialing up wireless deals” that Rogers, Bell and TELUS may be likely acquirers of one or more of the new AWS competitors, as the entrants look for funding to build out their new networks.
Public Mobile seems likely to end up being acquired by one of the incumbents: Rogers Communications, BCE or Telus. He casts DAVE – short for Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises Wireless – and Yak owner Globalive as potential merger partners.
Of course, regular readers of this blog will recall that there is a poison pill in place for the new entrants:
While all licence transfers must be approved by the Minister, licences obtained through the set-aside may not be transferred to companies that do not meet the criteria of a new entrant for a period of 5 years from the date of issuance.
Public Mobile, acquired spectrum in the G-block, which was not part of the set-aside, so this clause does not apply to them.
Wireless competition will be a major theme at The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto. The leaders of DAVE Wireless, Globalive and Public Mobile will all be appearing June 17 on a panel being moderated by Simon Avery of The Globe and Mail. Have you registered yet?