MONTREAL - Consumers who want more choices when they buy cellphones should have new players in the market next year, but initially they may have more regional competition instead of a fourth national wireless carrier.
New player Globalive Communications is planning to build a wireless network, but doesn't have any spectrum, the airwaves over which cellphones operate, in southern Quebec.
Globalive CEO Tony Lacavera said Thursday he still believes that new players should join together to build a national wireless network to cut costs and give consumers competitive choices.
Montreal-based media company Quebecor Inc. isn't thinking nationally at this point and has announced it will build a $1-billion regional wireless rollout starting in Quebec next year and on a more limited basis in Eastern Ontario.
Other new players in the wireless industry either haven't announced their plans or are sitting on the sidelines for the time being, such as Shaw Communications Inc. and MTS Allstream.
Telecom analyst Eamon Hoey said he doesn't believe there's a need for a fourth national carrier in Canada.
Hoey noted that there are small phone companies and cellular companies, in northwestern Ontario for example, that have been successful.
"In some areas of the country you can operate a very successful small-entity cellular company and serve the local market and quite well. The same could apply in large urban markets," said Hoey of Toronto-based Hoey Associates Management Consultants Inc.
Rogers, Telus and Bell are Canada's three dominant carriers. Industry Canada's recent wireless spectrum auction, which raised more than $4 billion for government coffers, was designed to open up the industry to new cellphone players.
Telecom analyst Mark Goldberg said partnerships to build wireless networks aren't necessary for success.
"I think it's safe to say that almost all consumers in Canada are going to have at least one new entrant in their market and many of them are going to have a couple of new brands to choose from," said Goldberg of Goldberg and Associates Inc. in Thornhill, Ont.
Lacavera's Toronto-based Globalive would like to become Canada's fourth national carrier and he's hoping to reach an agreement with Quebecor's Videotron to have access to spectrum in Quebec and form partnerships with other new entrants.
"I am still really hopeful that we can develop some kind of relationship with Videotron," he said. "I think ultimately we will end up in a reciprocal roaming arrangement, which makes so much commercial sense for both of us."
But he said Globalive, best-known to Canadians for its long-distance provider Yak, is moving ahead with its plan to build a network. It will launch its mobile phone service next year in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary.
While Shaw is now on the sidelines, chief executive Jim Shaw said Thursday that partnerships help cut costs.
"More co-operation between players -- people are more willing to entertain more ideas now to reduce cap ex (capital expenditure)," he told a conference call. "We feel that some of the market players aren't going to be able to make it through the tide here."
Shaw has spent nearly $200 million earlier this year to gain access to the mobile phone and data market.
MTS Allstream spokesman Greg Burch said the Manitoba-based company wants a better look at the field.
"We need to better understand the plans of everybody in wireless and what the landscape will look like to evaluate if there are any opportunities," Burch said in an email.
Burch said the company spent $41 million to acquire spectrum in that province and it will be used for rolling out new technologies down the road, and also will provide roaming and wireless business arrangements with other carriers.
