Rogers purchased Mobilicity for approximately $355 million (C$465 million), following a court approval. In addition it will pay about $80 million (C$100 million) to execute an option to purchase airwaves from Shaw Communications.
The operator will acquire Mobilicity's 155,000 subscribers in Canada's five urban markets including Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.
“We're basically adding multiple lanes on our wireless highway in three key markets overnight. This means faster speeds and better quality for our customers as they use more and more mobile video," said Guy Laurence, president and CEO of Rogers.
Mobilicity has been operating under court-supervised creditor protection for 21 months and has sought several financing and restructuring alternatives.
In addition Rogers said it will sell Mobilicity’s AWS-1 spectrum to Wind in exchange for some of Wind’s spectrum.
The move supports the Canadian government’s aim to help smaller operators compete in an increasingly competitive market.
"The approval of these spectrum licence transfers is a win for Canadian consumers," the country’s industry minister James Moore said. "A new wireless competitor has secured valuable spectrum it needs, and high-quality spectrum that went unused for almost a decade will now be deployed for the betterment of all Canadians."
