{"id":15694,"date":"2019-04-11T19:35:26","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T02:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=15694"},"modified":"2019-08-21T19:40:16","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T02:40:16","slug":"rogers-spends-1-72b-in-hard-fought-auction-for-wireless-spectrum-licensesap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=15694","title":{"rendered":"Rogers spends $1.72B in hard-fought auction for wireless spectrum licensesAp"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-h gn-speakable-title\">April 10, 2019 \u00a0by David Paddon &#8211; Canadian Press<\/p>\n<div class=\"story-byline\">\n<div class=\"standard-byline\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"socialShare withMore\" data-socialshare=\"comments,facebook,twitter,linkedin,email,print\" data-socialshare-more=\"google,whatsapp,reddit,pinterest,tumblr,stumbleupon\" data-socialshare-collapsable=\"false\" data-socialshare-count=\"false\" data-socialshare-url=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/5154660\/rogers-wireless-spectrum-license-auction\/\" data-socialshare-title=\"Rogers spends $1.72B in hard-fought auction for wireless spectrum licenses\" data-socialshare-init=\"true\">\n<div class=\"fe-embed-container\">\n<div id=\"video_5028862_wrapper\" class=\"sticky-wrapper restored\">\n<div class=\"stickyiframe-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"video_5028862\" class=\"inline-video\" src=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/video\/embed\/5028862\/#autoplay&amp;stickyiframe=video_5028862&amp;mute\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500px\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-displayinline-content=\"\" data-autosize=\"670\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div class=\"loading-icon\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fe-embed-caption\">\n<p><strong>WATCH: How vital is 5G and who will build Canada\u2019s network?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.globalnews.ca\/tag\/rogers\">Rogers Communications<\/a> will spend $1.72 billion to acquire spectrum licences from the federal government, making it by far the biggest spender in a hard-fought auction that pitted Canada\u2019s wireless companies against each other.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"story-txt\">\n<p>The Canadian treasury will get a total of nearly $3.47 billion from auctioning 104 licences to Canada\u2019s wireless networks, which are racing to get ready for fifth-generation technology that will roll out over a decade or so.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s auction was for the 600 megahertz band of frequencies, which can cover large areas and easily penetrating buildings.<\/p>\n<p>Next year\u2019s auction will be for 3,500 MHz licences, which are even more valuable because they\u2019re more widely used in fifth-generation networks around the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/4892059\/introducing-5g-wireless-technology-canada\/\">With 5G, data could reach you in as little as a millisecond, 50 times faster than 4G<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Canada\u2019s three national carriers were only allowed to bid on 64 of the available licences in this year\u2019s auction because of restrictions imposed by the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.<\/p>\n<p>ISED Minister Navdeep Bains said some of the licences were set aside for smaller carriers in order to stimulate competition which, he said, will bring down consumer prices.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m confident this strategy \u2013 in the short, medium and long-term \u2013 will benefit consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>WATCH: Consumer complaints about wireless and internet services continue to grow<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He said the money from the auction will be added to the federal government\u2019s general revenue incrementally over the life of the licences \u2013 generally 20 years.<\/p>\n<p>Rogers won 52 of the licences it was eligible to bid on, covering territorial blocks in southern and northern Ontario, northern Quebec, Atlantic Canada, Manitoba and the three territories.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis spectrum is vital to the deployment of 5G in Canada and we are well-positioned to bring the very best of 5G to Canadians,\u201d Rogers chief executive Joe Natale said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe went into this auction with a clear, disciplined plan and seized this opportunity for the benefit of our customers and shareholders.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/4961217\/telus-huawei-national-security\/\">Telus says ban on Huawei over national security concerns could set back 5G network plan<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Telus Corp. spent $931.2 million for 12 licences, making it the second-biggest spender in the 600 megahertz auction.<\/p>\n<p>Freedom Mobile \u2013 which operates networks in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia \u2013 spent nearly $492 million for 11 licences in its territories, making it the third-highest spender overall.<\/p>\n<p>The CEO of Shaw Communications, which owns Freedom, said it\u2019s becoming a true alternative to the incumbents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe addition of this 600 MHz low band spectrum will not only vastly improve our current LTE service but will also serve as a foundational element of our 5G strategy providing innovative and affordable wireless services to Canadians for years to come,\u201d Brad Shaw said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WATCH: Justin Trudeau says Canada consulting \u2018security experts\u2019 on 5G technology<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Quebecor Inc.\u2019s Videotron \u2013 which operates in Quebec \u2013 spent $255.8 million. The rest of the licences went to a number of smaller companies, including Bragg (Eastlink), TBayTel, SaskTel, and Xplornet.<\/p>\n<p>BCE Inc.\u2019s Bell Canada \u2013 owner of one of the three national wireless businesses \u2013 walked away without any licences.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April 10, 2019 \u00a0by David Paddon &#8211; Canadian Press \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff WATCH: How vital is 5G and who will build Canada\u2019s network? Rogers Communications will spend $1.72 billion to acquire spectrum licences from the federal government, making it by far the biggest spender in a hard-fought auction that pitted Canada\u2019s wireless companies against each other. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[526,103,492,430,324,426,139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bell","category-canada","category-gnode","category-huawei","category-rogers","category-small-cell","category-telus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15694"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15696,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15694\/revisions\/15696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}