Bell Canada, Rogers team to build BWA network

Two of Canada’s largest telcos are pooling spectrum and resources to create a nationwide broadband wireless access network covering two-thirds of the Canadian populace in less than three years.

Incumbent wireline and wireless operator Bell Canada and media and wireless conglomerate Rogers Communications are combing nationwide spectrum licenses in the 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz and international 3.5 GHz bands. And Bell is also negotiating with entrepreneur Craig McCaw for an additional chunk of nationwide 2.5 GHz spectrum, further bellying the cross-Canadian venture’s license holdings.

Bell has reached a separate agreement with McCaw to acquire his 50% stake in NR Communications, giving Bell full control of the company. NR and Roger are in a separate joint venture that holds 98 MHz of broadband wireless spectrum in the 2.5 GHz bands. After the transaction closes the NR licenses will be folded into the new BWA project, called Inukshuk Internet.

The NR deal, however, isn’t the new venture’s only dealings with McCaw. Bell and Rogers said they are negotiating extensive roaming agreements with McCaw owned broadband wireless provider Clearwire, which is building a similar networks in the U.S. and overseas. The Canadian partnership also plans to use fixed-wireless equipment manufactured by NextNet, a vendor subsidiary of Clearwire, which is also making all of the gear for McCaw’s network. With spectrum harmonization and shared proprietary equipment between itself and Clearwire, Inukshuk could easily extend its reach across North America as well as several other countries across the globe.

Bell and Rogers estimated the network would cost $200 million over the three-year deployment period, after which its footprint will cover 40 cities and 50 unserved rural areas from British Columbia to Quebec. The companies, however, indicated the partnership may not extend beyond deployment and operations to include offering a joint service itself. They said each company would to use 50% of the total network’s transmission capacity; and sales, marketing and billing would be provided directly by Rogers and Bell to their respective customers.

In other broadband wireless news, Sprint and Samsung today announced a joint effort to test Samsung Mobile WiMAX terminals against base stations from Sprint’s other WiMAX partners. Sprint is considering the launch of IEEE 802.16e technology over its own 2.5. GHz spectrum, of which it is now the major holder after acquiring Nextel Communications this summer.