Discussions

I see that the wireless spectrum auction relating to cell phone carriers in Canada is done today and if I'm understanding the results right, four different companies came away with new pieces of the Brandon pie:  
 
Telus  
Rogers  
A numbered Alberta company  
Globalive Wireless  
 
Going by the bid history at http://agora.ic.gc.ca/AuctionGCLF_BTS/licenceAnalysis.cfm it looks like both Telus and Rogers were very aggresive in the Brandon market and ended up spending more money here than anyone else.  
 
Globalive had been running the Yak cheap long distance service that many will have gotten mailings from in the past. They made a lot of headlines in this auction by buying parts of the wireless spectrum in places all over the country to get themselves in a spot to setup as a national cell carrier... and it's interesting to see we're on their radar.  
 
Not sure who the numbered Alberta company is.  
 
Also found it very interesting that Westman Media Co-op was one of the 27 Canadian companies registered as bidders... but going by the bid history didn't end up bidding even though it says they fronted a pre-auction deposit of just under $1 million.  
 
In the end if I'm understanding the results right, we can expect this city to be a lot more of a battleground for cell carriers. It would be interesting to hear peoples' opinions...... and also interesting to hear opinions from someone a bit more versed in the tech end of wireless and cell phones than myself.. especially what the differences are between the four different licenses and why some would go for so much more than others.