Wirelessnorth.ca

People often ask us about Look Communications. What’s up with Look, or what are they going to do with all the spectrum they have? What’s it good for? Well the only reason we at WirelessNorth.ca have held back on answering that question is that we don’t have a frickn’ clue.

Well, here’s some new news. Thanks to Edward for passing this on (He adds “I can’t believe you haven’t reported this yet”)

Look Communications Inc. (“Look” or the “Corporation”) (TSX Venture: LOK and LOK.A) received overwhelming shareholder support today for its Plan of Arrangement which will permit the orderly sale of all or substantially all of Look’s assets, in whole or in part, in order to maximize shareholder value.

1. Spectrum – Approximately 100MHz of contiguous licensed spectrum in Ontario and Quebec covering approximately 18 million people (1.8 billion MHz/Pops);

2. Broadcast License – A Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (“CRTC”) mobile broadcast license which has been renewed by the CRTC to August 2011;

3. Subscribers – Approximately 30,000 broadcast and Internet subscribers;

4. Network – A network consisting of two network operating centers (Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec), 26 one-way broadcast sites and 10 two-way broadcast sites; and

5. Tax Attributes – Approximately $300 million in tax attributes. The Corporation is willing to consider cash, debt, convertible equity, common equity or any combination in exchange for its assets.

As far as we know the spectrum look has (had) is 100MHz (that’s a lot in spectrum terms) of WiMax-ey spectrum in the 2.5Ghz range. And we all know how wimax technology has turned out so far (not so good Aktly). Once they great wireless hope of 2005, wimax has been beset with problems, super-clunky hardware, radio waves that don’t go through buildings so good, mobile-wimax standards and equipment missing in action etc.

Maybe you can do better? We can guarantee that in this economy, Look’s spectrum will come a lot cheaper than the four-odd billion all those cowboys just spent on Canada’s last 100MHz spectrum auction.

What Look appears to be betting on is that it’s assets are worth more apart than they are together within Look. They are betting on the new entrants (but who lets be honest probably aren’t flush with extra cash right now) will need more spectrum to be truly successful in offering any rich data and media applications long term.

They’re also betting on new mobile wimax chipset availability (finally) and future convergence of wimax and 2.5+GHz spectrum and standards with celular 4G technology (it’s supposed to happen).

link: Look CEO’s slidedeck to shareholders pdf

Former technology titan Nortel Networks Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday, a move that will likely see what was once Canada’s great corporate success story broken up and sold to foreign rivals.

Canada’s largest ever tech company dies today. While many of the business units should live on post-restructuring, not necessarily fully intact or in Canadian hands.

It’s a sad day but also a sign of the times. After the tech crash in 2000, after accounting and financial scandals, after being stuck with way-too large bets on the wrong technologies (CDMA, Wimax, plain old telephone service) and finally a credit crunch, Nortel is dead.

Bad news for Canadian innovation in telecom. We could have been a contender.

Nonetheless while the stock holders, the bond holders may be wiped out, the human capital is still here. Time to start some new companies, unshackled by the past. It’s a new world out there with many new disruptive opportunities and our engineering vision talent will be needed as much as ever.

If you have your own eulogies, inside perspective, tributes or rants to offer, the comments section is open.

Link: Nortel files for bankruptcy protection

As widely reported in the dead tree media this morning, spectrum auction underdog BMV has secured an additional 50M in backing to rollout

” Low-cost wireless carrier BMV Holdings (“BMV”) today announced that OMERS Private Equity, the private equity arm of the OMERS Worldwide group of companies, has signed an agreement to invest up to $50 million in the business. BMV will launch value-priced wireless services to Canadians in specific markets in Ontario and Quebec during the third quarter of 2009.”

Speculative wireless ventures clearly being seen as a good an investment as any these days.

For you, dear reader, this is a good news/bad news story. The good news is a scrappy new startup is now a lot closer to effectively complete rollout (in Quebec and Ontario). And competition has to be good right?

Well the bad news is, essentially, – no make that literally- this is your grandmama’s cell phone service. That’s who BMV is targeting. “The great unsubscribed”. Cheap phones, old-old-school CDMA technology, talk and text only, forget about data.

So what are you to do? Here’s the plan. Switch your high-end bell/telus/Rogers 3G plan to a data-only plan to keep your shiny smart phone applications humming (and sidestep the big-three’s increasingly egregious voice pricing). Step 2: buy up some dirt cheap minutes and a secondary handset from BMV or one of the other low-end entrant (you can bring the number with number portability) for those obscure occasions when you want a mobile device for… what’s that called again… oh yes “making phone calls”.

Call your Grandma. She misses you.

Earlier on WirelessNorth.ca: New Entrant: BMV’s bets big on bargain spectrum

David Isen sends word that the Freedom to Connect conference has been announced this year March 30 & 31, 2009 – Washington, DC. Topics for this year’s conference include:

F2C 2009 will tell the story of:

* on-line, network-enabled industry and culture, new jobs and sustainable growth
* Burlington VT, where muni fiber enables business, artistic endeavor, and new telemedicine
* how Lafayette LA’s community came together as it built its muni fiber network
* the twin cities of Cedar Falls and Waterloo, Iowa, where one twin has a muni net, and the other doesn’t
* how municipal CIOs are planning for Seattle, Portland and San Francisco municipal fiber networks
* city nets, wired and wireless, that didn’t work — what went wrong and what that teaches
* what Obama’s infrastructure and economic recovery plans mean for tomorrow’s network
* and more …

Although this is traditionally a US-centric conference, according to David a few notable Canadians are already on board, including Bill St Arnaud ( See this well-considered alternative fibre to the home business model ) and CRTC commissioner Tim Denton

Link: F2C website for details and registration