Big telecom Telus gets federal blessing to acquire new player Public Mobile

OTTAWA – Telus 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:RCI.B), Bell (TSX:BCE) or Telus (TSX:T).

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.