Canada’s telecoms and media group Quebecor has held talks with Wind Mobile regarding a potential tie-up, although it has not come to a decision yet, its CEO Pierre Dion said.
During the company’s Q3 2014 earnings call on Thursday, Dion said the…
Canada’s telecoms and media group Quebecor has held talks with Wind Mobile regarding a potential tie-up, although it has not come to a decision yet, its CEO Pierre Dion said.
During the company’s Q3 2014 earnings call on Thursday, Dion said the regional conglomerate is still reviewing the possibility of expanding outside Quebec via a deal with Wind, the country’s fourth carrier.
“What I can say is that we did have a few discussions with Wind Mobile, they are fully aware of our interest in participating in the consolidation of the industry. And as I said we will do that only if we think that regulatory and investments conditions are right for us,” the CEO stressed.
In recent months, Quebecor’s mobile operator Videotron has been rumoured among the potential bidders for both Wind and Mobilicity. All three players hold less than a 10% market share of Canada’s mobile industry.
In mid-September, VimpelCom announced it would sell its stake in Wind to its controlling shareholder Globalive Capital, the investment group led by the operator’s chairman Anthony Lacavera.
Lacavera teamed up with a consortium of US private equity funds to acquire the interest he did not already own in the operator and has committed to “significantly invest capital with the aim of purchasing spectrum and growing Wind Mobile’s business across Canada”, according to a statement by Canada’s industry ministry, which approved the deal earlier this week.
The country’s upcoming AWS-3 spectrum auction, scheduled for early 2015, is aimed at creating a fourth national player. Only operators with less than 10% of national market share and 20% regional share will be eligible to bid for a set-aside 30 MHz block of spectrum.
Although Wind is the country’s fourth-largest player, the top three mobile operators – Rogers Communications, BCE and Telus – hold a combined 90% market share.
A few months ago, Quebecor said it had held meetings with several potential partners to gauge their interest should it decide to consolidate smaller operators in Canada’s mobile market.
However, its expansion plans would depend on the government reforming roaming regulations to make it affordable for the operator to use its larger rivals’ networks to gain nationwide coverage.
Canada’s telecoms regulator the CRTC is currently reviewing roaming rules and is expected to make a decision in the coming months.
