Struggling Mobilicity still talking to Industry Canada about a buyer

The lawyer for struggling Mobilicity says discussions are still going on with Industry Canada about selling the small wireless company.

But lawyer Orestes Pasparakis wouldn’t name the potential buyer and also wouldn’t say if big telecom Telus is making a second attempt to buy the company.

Mobilicity was granted creditor protection by the courts at the end of September while awaiting a ruling from Industry Canada about a potential transaction.

The Globe and Mail quotes sources as saying Mobilicity is in talks with Telus to restart a sale process that was killed by the federal government last June.

However, Mobilicity’s licence for spectrum — radio waves needed to operate cellphone networks — doesn’t expire until next February, which complicates a potential sale. A condition of Mobilicity’s entry as a new wireless player in Canada five years ago was that its spectrum licence could not be sold before the expiration date.

On Wednesday, Telus (TSX:T) said it had been given federal approval to buy small talk-and-text provider Public Mobile, which was not under any sale restrictions.