OTTAWA, January 15, 2001 – Brian Tobin, Minister of Industry, today announced the start of the bidding for mobile wireless spectrum.
“Providing additional spectrum offers the mobile wireless industry an
opportunity to meet the demands of Canada’s rapidly expanding wireless
market,”said Minister Tobin. “These new ways of delivering communications
services will encourage the evolution of third-generation PCS services,
unleashing the power of the Internet and making it accessible to Canadians
wherever and whenever they choose.”
Seven companies qualified to participate in the auction of additional
Personal Communications Services (PCS) spectrum in the two gigahertz (GHz)
frequency range. There are a total of 62 licences of 10 MHz each available
in 16 market areas across Canada.
The bids will be conducted securely over the Internet using Canadian public
key infrastructure (PKI) encryption and digital signature technologies to
ensure their confidentiality and authenticity.
During the auction, interested parties with web-enabled mobile devices may, at any time, view the latest auction news on a wireless web portal. Users with Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) devices may access the portal at http://sd.ic.gc.ca/a.wml.
This initiative demonstrates the Government of Canada’s goal of improving the Canadian information infrastructure and encourages growth in the range of wireless telecommunications services available to Canadians. It will also enable more Canadians to connect to the information highway from anywhere, at anytime.
Additional details on the auction, the bidders and the round results can be found on Industry Canada’s web site at:
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/spectrum.
