OTTAWA - Telus (
TSX:T.T,
Stock Forum) has received approval from Ottawa to acquire new wireless player Public Mobile, primarily a talk-and-text service with 280,000 customers in Ontario and Quebec.
Federal Industry Minister James Moore says he has approved the transfer of Public Mobile's spectrum licence to Vancouver-based Telus and says the transaction doesn't affect competition in the wireless industry.
Moore says Public Mobile's spectrum - radio waves needed to operate cellphone networks - isn't used for the latest smartphones and data plans.
Public Mobile bought its spectrum in 2008 and it was never under any restrictions that would prevented it from being sold - unlike new players Wind Mobile and Mobilicity which bought a different kind of spectrum that the government doesn't want sold to Rogers (
TSX:T.RCI.B,
Stock Forum), Bell (
TSX:T.BCE,
Stock Forum) or Telus.
Telus tried to buy struggling Mobilicity last spring, but the $380-million deal was rejected by Industry Canada.
Financial terms of the deal with Public Mobile, which launched in 2009, have not been disclosed.
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