Report: Verizon Looking to Buy Canada's Wind Mobile

By Jane McEntegart
published

Could Verizon be headed up North?

Canada's Wind Mobile is for sale, and rumor has it Verizon is thinking of going shopping. News outlet Reuters cites one source that says Verizon Wireless has offered Wind Mobile a deal worth between $600 million and $800 million. Not only that, but Verizon is apparently also talking to a second carrier in Canada, the struggling Mobilicity.

Mobilicity recently agreed to an acquisition by Telus Mobile but that deal was blocked by the Canadian government. Wind Mobile has also expressed interest in consolidating the companies, along with a possible third party, Public Mobile. The idea is that if all three smaller networks were to merge, they'd have a better chance of competing with Canada's big three (Rogers, Bell and Telus).

Wind, Verizon and Mobilicity all refused to comment on the report, though Reuters reports that Verizon recently vocalized an interest in entering the Canadian market.

Wind Mobile launched just three and a half years ago, in December 2009, and uses the AWS spectrum for its network. It is tied for fourth largest Canadian carrier with SaskTel Mobility. The carrier offers service to residents living in Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, Ottawa, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph, part of the Niagara Region, London, Barrie, Kingston, Windsor, Woodstock and Peterborough (all in Ontario). There's also coverage in Gatineau (QB); Calgary and Edmonton (AB); the Greater Vancouver region, Whistler and Abbotsford (BC).

11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Grandmastersexsay
    How the hell does the Canadian government block the acquisition of a company? Is it Nazi Germany up there?
    Reply
  • wildkitten
    11063450 said:
    How the hell does the Canadian government block the acquisition of a company? Is it Nazi Germany up there?

    The US government blocked AT&T from buying T-Mobile, so it's really not any difference.

    I can understand the desire to not have monopolies, but if there is already 3 cell carriers doing well, not sure why they would not allow it.

    But I do get your point, government intrusion is getting ridiculous in this day and age. Can you imagine if the government acted a hundred years ago the way they do today? The Wright brothers would have been forced to have gotten dozens of permits, pay heavy taxes, just to try to experiment with the airplane.
    Reply
  • Marco925
    11063450 said:
    How the hell does the Canadian government block the acquisition of a company? Is it Nazi Germany up there?

    11063547 said:
    11063450 said:
    How the hell does the Canadian government block the acquisition of a company? Is it Nazi Germany up there?

    The US government blocked AT&T from buying T-Mobile, so it's really not any difference.

    I can understand the desire to not have monopolies, but if there is already 3 cell carriers doing well, not sure why they would not allow it.

    But I do get your point, government intrusion is getting ridiculous in this day and age. Can you imagine if the government acted a hundred years ago the way they do today? The Wright brothers would have been forced to have gotten dozens of permits, pay heavy taxes, just to try to experiment with the airplane.

    The idea is NOT to have our old market back. The big three have consolidated and kepr prices high. It's tough when you have the highest telecom prices out there in the developed world. The Big three have gone out of their way to charge for everything, and have worked very hard to try to force the little three out. Either by buying out the better-priced competition or using fighter brands. 3 years ago, unlimited long distance would've been a pipe dream. When the market is mandated to be "canadian" and the restrictions favour this oligopoly, it gets to be a tight squeeze on the wallet of the consumer. Especially when the big three cry poor if something doesn't go their way, yet have all the money in the world to buy out random shit that has nothing to do with anything else they do. The little three are doing away with their questionable business practises. This block was done to maintain market freedom.
    Reply
  • Zeknichov
    The issue with the Canadian ISP companies is the Government regulations surrounding Canadian telecommunication companies. Up until 2012, foreign companies were not allowed to own more than 46.7% of the voting rights in any telecommunication company. This of course reduced competition considerably as no foreign owned telecommunication could attempt to compete in the Canadian market. The regulation was amended in 2012 to allow foreign owned companies to enter the market but they are only allowed to have up to 10% market share if they own a majority of the voting rights. Considering the Canadian market is dominated by 3 companies, that's essentially 30% each. If a foreign company tried to compete toe-to-toe with the Canadian telecommunication companies they would be looking to snag at least 25% marker share, which the government regulations do not allow them to do. Basically the amendment was useless and didn't go far enough. If Canadians want competitive markets to reduce prices, they need to vote in a government willing to do what is best for Canadian consumers rather than what is best for Canadian producers.

    http://www.mcmillan.ca/Telecommunications-Act-amended-to-remove-foreign-ownership-restrictions-on-certain-telecommunications-providers
    Reply
  • TheBigTroll
    NO. Wind Mobile is one of the only ones in canada that dont scam the crap out of you
    Reply
  • Theo Coutu
    Hey, now we get "nationwide" coverage!
    (if you live in vancouver, montreal, the GTA, ottawa or calgary)
    Reply
  • NShukla
    Reply
  • chicofehr
    Logistics is also a problem. Canada has a very small population in comparison to the amount of optical lines and towers needed to cover the area to avoid black spots. That's part of the reason why its so much cheaper in Europe as they have much more dense populations, and thus, more profit per square km/Mile. On the other hand, Gov't regulations also make it very expensive to expand infrastructure with all the permits and environmental reviews. It takes years sometimes just to break ground on new expansion project which limits the networks capabilities and costs the phone companies more to implement so they can keep up with the new fads in the mobile world. I gave the other side of the story so I did my job today.
    Reply
  • NShukla
    How the hell does the Canadian government block the acquisition of a company? Is it Nazi Germany up there?

    This is a complex answer, because there has been good reason for the Canadian government to block acquisitions, such as Telus trying to buy Mobilicity. They should definitely allow this though, as Verizon entering the market is good for consumers! The government needs to be involved in telecom regulation anyway. The government's regulatory board (called the CRTC) is RESPONSIBLE for the telecoms oligopoly. Under antiquated laws of the past that were intended to "preserve canadian culture", foreign telecoms were blocked from competing with Canadian telecoms. This created 3 telecoms (Rogers, Bell, and Telus) that FIERCELY dominate the market, whilst colluding and fixing prices. This needs to change!

    But people have been standing up and making noise, and our telecom inferiority is becoming more and more apparent, when services like Netflix have to degrade the HD signal in Canada because most people have 40-60 gig per month internet caps. Therefore, the government has been pressured to allow companies like WIND to enter the market, and are now being pressured to stop this little guy from being swallowed by big telecom and returning the market to stagnation. Unfortunately, they are struggling, so a big telecom that isn't Rogers, Bell, or Telus is the solution here!
    Reply
  • Branden
    this is the deal: here in canada the big 3 (bell, telus, rogers) are running an oligarchy - there's little competition between them and it's not good for consumers. about 4 or 5 years ago when the government held a bid for more wireless spectrum frequencies there was a caveat that much of it (50%?) had to go to small providers. doing this would help the small providers compete with the big guys and ultimately be good for consumers (and it seemed to work, the small guys have better plans and better prices). the reason the government blocked telus from buying wind is because the wireless spectrum that wind bought and uses was always supposed to be out of the hands of the big 3 and if telus bought wind they'd get their grubby hands on it and is therefore seen to be an anti-consumer and anti-competition acquisition.
    Reply