“We’ve always wanted to grow in the rest of Canada,” Péladeau said Monday but declined to answer Competition Bureau lawyer Antoine Lippé’s question of whether the company acquired 700MHz with the intention to bid for Wind Mobile, Freedom’s previous branding, in 2014.
The company spent $830 million to acquire spectrum in Western Canada in the government auction in 2021, a move that was challenged by wireless competitor Telus Corp. In May, a Federal Court judge rejected Telus’ arguments that Quebecor was not a qualified buyer of the 3500 MHz spectrum that had been set aside in the auction.
Quebecor and its Vidéotron subsidiary were initially left out of talks with Rogers and Shaw in the spring as they scrambled to find a way to satisfy the concerns over wireless concentration once it became clear authorities were not comfortable with their merger as initially structured.Article content
Some observers suggested a lawsuit between Quebecor and Rogers stemming from a fraught arrangement to jointly build a cellular network in Quebec and the National Capital Region was to blame for the initial shunning of Quebecor, while others said Rogers was interested in selling some of the wireless operations to a less-aggressive competitor.
Vidéotron’s senior vice-president and chief technology officer, Mohamed Drif, also testified before the three-member tribunal on Monday, while its vice-president of finances, Jean-François Lescadres, took the stand on Friday. Lescadres told the tribunal that the wireless operator had turned down an opportunity to buy Shaw Mobile along with Freedom Mobile.
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