Rogers, Bragg extend Canadian auction

Just when you think you’re out, they pull you back in. That’s what the situation seems like in the Canadian spectrum auction. WIth no bids in the 318th round, things looked to be coming to an end. But there’s a twist. Industry Canada set the timer for one hour, and told participants to decide if they were ready for closure. Rogers and Bragg were not.

Actually, it seems that Rogers move was rather benign. They simply withdrew one of their high bids in New Brunswick, and placed it on a license in the A block. Simple, to the point, and, it seems, unchallenged. So everyone would have been ready to move on, except…

Yeah, Bragg Communications didn’t play so nicely. They wanted a different license in New Brunswick — Rogers’ vacated spectrum is deemed unusable. Problem was, it was held by Bell Mobility. So after Bragg upped the bid, Bell shot back. They still have the license; they’re just out an additional $700,000.

That wasn’t all, though. Bragg, realizing that they weren’t going to get the license in New Brunswick without vastly overpaying, upped a bid in Windsor/Leamington. Of course, Bragg had little to no use for the spectrum. Some analysts called it “spiteful bidding,” and those analysts probably aren’t wrong. That one cost Bell another $500,000.

So, on the day the auction was supposed to end, Bragg Communications upped Bell’s stake by $1.2 million. It doesn’t seem likely that Bragg will be receiving any Christmas cards from Bell this year.

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