Canada’s Industry Minister James Moore yesterday (12 May 2015) announced the list of provisional licence winners in the Broadband Radio Service (BRS) spectrum auction in the 2500-2690MHz (‘2500MHz’) band. 302 of 318 licences on offer in 61 areas across Canada were awarded to nine companies, with a total value of CAD755.37 million (USD626.49 million), after eleven participants were qualified to bid in the auction which opened on 14 April. The 2500MHz band licensing was particularly aimed at providing broadband services in rural areas, whilst also increasing the spectrum available nationwide to meet the demand for 4G mobile services on smartphones and tablets. The auction featured spectrum caps and smaller geographic licence areas to ensure that four or more wireless carriers, as well as rural internet service providers, had the opportunity to hold 2500MHz spectrum licences in every area of the country. All licences contain strict ‘use it or lose it’ deployment requirements.

The nine licence winners bid the following amounts (for 2500MHz concessions in the named provinces/territories):

Telus – CAD478.82 million (Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut);

Videotron – CAD186.95 million (Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia);

Bell – CAD29.98 million (Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut);

Xplornet – CAD25.43 million (Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia);

Rogers – CAD24.09 million (Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia);

Eastlink – CAD4.82 million (Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Alberta);

Corridor Communications (CCI Wireless) – CAD2.30 million (Ontario, Alberta);

MTS Allstream – CAD2.24 million (Manitoba);

TBayTel – CAD1.73 million (Ontario).

Two other qualified bidders, Wind Mobile and SSi Micro, did not acquire any licences.

Thanks to TeleGeography for the article.