In a surprising turn of events, Niagara Networks has positioned itself ahead of all new entrants in the upcoming Canadian Wireless Spectrum Auction. The stealth company put down an astonishing $881 Million dollar credit deposit, which enables it to bid on enough spectrum to create a formidable national network.
I couldn’t find much on the company other than the name of its president, Douglas Evashkow and that its a Toronto based company. I did however find this quote from Mr. Evashkow from Sept of 2007.
“A big part of the story is enabling a mobile workforce.” Says Douglas Evashkow, president of data services startup Niagara Networks: “The market for mobile data in this country right now is nothing compared to what it’s going to be. Over the next 10 years, the industry is going to generate at least $200 billion in revenue.”
The full article text is available here. The article also makes reference to the fact that Niagara is using private capital to finance their bid.
I’m actually excited for the first time about this auction as it appears that we will get a new national player with (apparently) the money and drive to create a network based on serving the needs of business.
It sounds like Niagara’s president is talking about more than a “dumb pipe” network that restricts application usage and has hideously expensive data rates. I hope my guess is right.
Wouldn’t that be a nice change for Canadians?
Tags: 3G, Canada Spectrum Auction, mobile, mobile data, wireless
