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.