Quebecor in ‘no rush’ to get rid of 700MHz spectrum: Pruneau

Quebecor Inc.’s chief financial officer Jean-François Pruneau said Thursday the company is content to wait to sell the 700 MHz spectrum it picked up in 2014 and never deployed, given its value continues to grow with time. He said he’s been in “discussions with all the parties,” both incumbents and new entrants, about the seven licences in Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia on which the company spent $233.3 million in 2014. It has since declined to expand into those areas. “My job is to create as deep a market as I can, to get the highest value possible, and obviously with data consumption continuing to increase at such a pace, on an annual basis … it’s going to put more pressure on the networks in the future,” he said on the second day of a two-day conference hosted by CIBC World Markets. “The most efficient way to alleviate that pressure is through spectrum,” he noted. “That said, we’re in no rush to dispose of the spectrum. We think it’s going to continue to increase in value.” At the same time, Quebecor’s Videotron, which operates only in Quebec, has a deficit of low-frequency spectrum, which is valuable because it’s good at going through walls and carrying signals farther distances. The upcoming 600 MHz spectrum auction, “as the last allocation of low-frequency spectrum for the foreseeable future, will provide us the opportunity to address this issue,” he added. Pruneau said he expects the government will release the conditions of the auction next year, though “we have no indications going to be a set-aside for new entrants, favourable conditions.” Still, he was “confident that we will be in a position to get our hands on the spectrum we need at a reasonable price.” “As a new entrant, we believe that there should be some favourable conditions for us,” he added. “If we want the market to remain competitive, I think it’s important that the new entrants get some favourable conditions for that spectrum.” On the other hand, Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Guy Laurence said he’s in “no hurry” for the 600 MHz auction, given the company’s current spectrum holdings. Rogers spent $3.3 billion in the 700 MHz auction two years ago, several times more than its competitors did. “With my broadcasting hat on, I also have some concerns about how the government may run that auction,” he said. As a result of the 600 MHz auction, at least some over-the-air (OTA) television stations will have to find new frequencies if they want to continue broadcasting. “The U.S. process has not been without its issues, and I think the government needs be extremely careful about when and how they declare their hand on the 600 MHz,” he said. “But I think it’s more important for Canada, to be quite frank, that we get it right than we get it soon.” In response to a question about imposing set-asides, as the previous government did in past auctions, Laurence said the Conservative government wanted to have four national players, and argued Rogers “helped facilitate that through the Rubik’s cube deal with Mobilicity and Wind.” He added: “So having satisfied that requirement that the previous government had, we have to see what the new government’s point of view on that is.” Laurence also touched on the trend of increasing wireless data usage, something both BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. talked about on the first day of the conference. He said that he believes people are using their mobile phones as their main messaging device. “Although they’re using PCs and tablets for video streaming, they’re doing pretty much everything else on the mobile phone,” he said. “As you become more dependent on one device for certain use cases, you use more data, and as you use more data then you decide you want to pay more for that,” he said. “So it’s not that we’re charging more per megabyte. In fact, the cost per megabyte, if you look at the industry trend, is actually going down. But the consumption of megabytes is going up and continues to grow, and long may it continue.” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

Quebecor in ‘no rush’ to get rid of 700MHz spectrum: Pruneau

News | September 22, 2016

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us

Quebecor in ‘no rush’ to get rid of 700MHz spectrum: Pruneau

News | September 22, 2016

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Related Stories

ISED auctioning off 225 leftover spectrum licences

Freedom answers to ‘unlimited’, offers $0 phones on select plans

No broadcaster compensation for 600 MHz move, ISED confirms

Shaw says patience, not regulation, required to see organic MVNO market

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us