Wirelessnorth.ca

We’re 4 rounds in to the auction now and bidding patterns are starting to take shape. The big trend is that each of the bidders encumbents and entrants are falling back to focus on their core markets. So much for a new national carrier. How this auction changes the market will depend on where you live. Shaw is spreading out in the west, MTS is mostly sticking to Manitoba (with a few pokes at Toronto) and Quebecor is focused on (surprise) Quebec and a few licences in Ontario. Interesting there’s a bunch of licences (esp out east and the north) no one has bid on yet. While some of the big ones (think Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver) are seeing some fierce back and forth bidding.

Before we jump into the detailed play by play, here’s a quick refresher on how the licences work:

There’s 6 blocks of mobile spectrum (A through F), but 3 of them (B,C,D) are set-asside for new entrants only. Just a little more confusinly the spectrums are also different widths (10 or 20 MHz – more being better) and some blocks are broken down into 14 geographic licences per block and others 59.

It’s a bit of work to parse all this out and the total numbers tend to hide what’s going on at a local level. But fear not, WirelessNorth.ca has dug into the numbers to give you a sports score summary of each block. Enjoy!

A a nice Block of 20MHz nationwaide in 59 geographic slivers (48 bid on)

From Nanaimo to Newfoundland Telus is all over this one coast to coast but only in the smaller cities. In the west Rogers is the high bid in Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City. Sakstel has Saskatoon and Regina, Bell has a few random bits like Lethbrige and Dawson Creek (plugging network holes?).

B Choicest Block of Set-aside spectrum 20Mhz in 14 pieces (11 bid on)

Quebecor has eastern and northern Quebec while Data & Audio Video has snagged Eastern Ontario & Outaouais, Shaw has Northern Ontario and the west. MTS has the middle –and- a huge bid of 92Million on southern Ontario including Toronto.

C Block 10MHz of Free-for-all spectrum in 14 geographies (12 bid on)

Quebecor has Southern Ontario and Toronto (now their furthest west outpost). Oh and they have most of the Quebec bits too except Tirabassi who has southern Quebec and BC. Globalive with Eastern Ontario & Outaouais. Shaw is big in Alberta and Sask, SSI Micro has the far north.

D Block smaller 10MHz block of set-aside in 59 pieces ( 43 bid on)

This one is all about Shaw everywhere west of Manitoba, MTS has Manitoba and Quebecor almost everything east of Toronto. But Data has, at the moment, high bid on Toronto itself and Tirabassi continues with the odd combo of Montreal and Vancouver. No one has the Maritimes in D block. And ruralcom hanging on to Yukon Northwest Territories with a princely bid of $20,000.

E Block is a less fashionable 10Mhz chunk of 57 tiny territories open to all (but only 33 bid on)

This one is mostly Telus and Bell duking it out for smaller areas across the country. Celluworld makes an appearance gunning for Kingston and Brockville. Quebecor holds montreal here (their only winning montreal spectrum at the moment). Shaw has Victoria/Vancouver and MTS has Winnepeg and Brandon.

F Is the most popular chuck of non-set aside, a fat 20MHz split into 59 slices (all 59 bid on)

From Ontario east to the Maritimes the list reads like this Bell, Bell, Bell, Bell, Bell… But here also comes Bragg with 48M bid on Toronto. And Telus is pretty much everything west of Bell land (la plus ca change…). Rogers has a single standing high bid for Quebec City.

G and I aren’t proper AWS spectrum just some extra tidbits of relatively narrow Industry Canada through in maybe useful for fixed wireless or other creative applications.

Here the only bidding action has been MTS and Sasktel with a few nibbles, and someone called Blue Canada Wireless willing to spend 14M for 10Mhz of this stuff just in Southern Quebec. (Your guess is as good as ours).

Top 10 Bidders by Total Amount of Standing High Bids: Bidder, Amount, # of high bids, Eligibility Points

Rogers Communications Inc.	$ 111,200,000	8	732

6934579 Canada Inc.	$ 107,390,000	6	698

6934242 Canada Ltd.	$ 87,299,857	10	524

Bell Mobility Inc.	$ 83,889,784	46	590

TELUS Communications Company	$ 75,502,366	64	790

9193-2962 Québec Inc.	$ 60,768,030	20	472

1380057 Alberta Ltd.	$ 51,160,147	37	630

Bragg Communications Inc.	$ 48,900,000	1	240

Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises Wireless Inc.	$ 31,360,000	2	220

Link: Official Auction Site
Link: Everything you needed to know about the Canadian Spectrum Auction but were afraid to ask