The federal telecommunications regulator has started a second foreign ownership and control review of a start-up wireless company, a step needed before it can start business.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) released a letter that it sent l to the management of Toronto-based Data and Audio-visual Enterprises Wireless Inc. (DAVE Wireless), saying it has started a review of the company’s structure. If given the green light, the company will go to market under the name Mobilicity.
After a preliminary look at its documents, the commission has decided things are in order enough to hold a closed-door review of the corporate structure rather than a public hearing, as Globalive Wireless Management Corp. had to undergo last fall. Unlike the ordeal Globalive went through, the closed-door review doesn’t require testimony.
“With regard to control in fact, the commission notes inter alia (a Latin term meaning ‘among other things’) that on a fully diluted basis, 67 per cent of the [DAVE Wireless] voting interest will be held by the largest Canadian investors and that the largest non-Canadian investor has provided less than 55 per cent of the total capital of the company.”
The commission also noted in the letter that a “significant debt facility has been provided through an export credit arrangement with a foreign bank for the purchase of telecommunications equipment.” Ericsson LM is designing and building the company’s HSPA+ network.The company has said DAVE Wireless’ biggest shareholder is Toronto entrepreneur John Bitove through his Obelysk holding company. Bitove also has a U.S. partner, Quadrangle Capital Partners of New York. In December a group led by National Bank Financial Inc. and GMP Securities L.P. also put in a combination of debt and equity.