Despite having declared that “Verizon had lost interest in Canada and “never seriously considered” a move into this country’s $19-billion wireless market” (The Globe and Mail), Verizon, the second largest mobile network in the US, founded in 2000, appears to have tried to enter into the Canadian mobile network scene by offering to purchase Mobilicity for $350 million, in addition to its initial offer of $700 million to Wind Mobile.
One of the main barriers to entry for Verizon, as well as other mobile network companies outside of Canada, face is the fact that the federal government controls how much mobile bandwidth is sold/auctioned off to these companies. If Verizon cannot get access to a large amount of it, they will not be able to compete with The Big 3. An alternative entry method Verizon considered was to offer a purchase of an existing mobile network in Canada, which was exemplified with the offers it made to both Mobilicity and Wind Mobile, but those offers did not come to fruition.
According to this article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/verizons-canadian-dalliance-deeper-than-admitted/article14427259/ , “Verizon spokesman Bob Varettoni confirmed that the company did not file application papers this week to bid in the 700 MHz auction, which begins Jan. 14, 2014.” (The Globe and Mail). This statement can be simply interpreted that Verizon’s interest in the Canadian market has greatly diminished from what it it initially was, but it certainly does not mean the interest is no longer there.
The world is constantly changing. It is certainly a possibility that another foreign-based mobile network service will contest the Canadian market again, but at this moment, it appears Verizon is focusing most of its attention on controlling the entire wireless services of the US; one of the main threats of foreign-based mobile networks appears to be preoccupied with another goal. What is certain, though, is that there will always be barriers to entry into many of the existing markets in the world, where Canada’s wireless services is no exception.