Notley sent a letter to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Francois-Philippe Champagne on Tuesday, following new conditions he made last month on the proposed deal that would have Shaw sell Freedom Mobile to Videotron, a telecommunications company owned by Quebecor, for $2.85 billion.Sign up to receive daily headline news from the Calgary SUN, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.
“Access to the spectrum is going to be a critical part of that for certain portions of the province,” she said. “We need to make sure that our opportunity to get access to this spectrum is the same now as it was before the minister suggested that asset needed to transfer to Videotron.” A 2019 study out of the University of Alberta looking into Canadian Wireless Spectrum Auctions, noted “in the 700MHz range, only Bragg/Eastlink and SaskTel appear to be using all their licenses. Telus and Bell appear to have the highest number of unused licenses, with ten and eight each.” In the 2500 MHz spectrum at the time of the paper, Telus and Bell accounted for 50 per cent of the unused licenses, with 82 and 46 respectively, Xplornet owned 43 unused licenses and Rogers 41.
Rogers said during hearings on Monday the planned sale of Freedom to Videotron would invigorate competition in the wireless market and asked why Quebecor would choose to spend almost $3 billion to acquire a business that is doomed to fail.