Who’s holding up the spectrum auction?
By Howard Solomon
Assistant editor, Network World Canada
After Monday's 10 sessions bids were going up less than $90,000 a round, suggesting most of the gang are satisfied with what they've got. So who's holding up a declaration that the auction is over?
These are the four licences which comprised almost all of the day's action:
-- Licence 214b, which covers the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Globablive held it for the longest time until Monday morning, when Sasktel started a furious bidding war. Price of this spectrum jumped from $56,000 to $136,000 in a few hours;
--Licence 328d, covering the Southern Ontario towns of Listowell, Goderich and Stratford. Bragg Communications held it for ages, but last Thursday began a fight with Montreal's Celluworld, doubling the bid from $446,000 to $882,000;
--Licence 331d, covering the Southern Ontario city of Chatham. Held almost since Day 1 by Canquest Communications of Chatam, this morning Globalive stepped in and in a few rounds the value went up from $454,000 to $602,000;
--Licence 348d, covering central Alberta. First held by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, Toronto long-distance reseller Rich Telecom and the Toronto-based consortium called DAVE are now fighting for it, pushing the value up from $352,000 to $594,000.
(For more details on who these players are, click here)
By the end of the day the fighting over the Stratford area (of interest because of the Shakespeare festival there draws cellphone-toting tourists) had stopped and instead switched to licence 316d, a 10Mhz slice covering Pembroke, Ont. Globalive and Celluworld have been sparing over this area, which is cottage country for some in Ottawa and includes Canadian Forces base Petawawa, for a while, with the well-funded Globalive holding it for most days. But Monday afternoon Celluworld stepped back in, and the price went up in four rounds from $588,000 to $690,000 before the day's final gun.
This last-minute fighting to consolidate positions is fascinating (although annoying for impatient obververs), and undoubtedly is causing some sweating. And swearing. Globablive and Shaw have the bucks to stay slugging, but some people are calling their bluffs.
So it continues Tuesday. As Scarlett O'Hara once said, tomorrow is another day.