AT&T, one of the largest telecom companies in the US market, explicitly stated that they were unwilling to enter the Canadian market. AT&T stepped out from the wireless auction market by the Canadian government, stating that there is not “enough room” for four players in the industry.

AT&T

Rogers, Wind and Telus are the three highly established telecom companies in Canada. A confidential memo obtained by BNN says that “AT&T had looked into Wind Mobile and Mobilicity in detail and passed”. This somewhat depicts an example of Porter’s five force analysis, as the companies created barriers to entry for AT&T by being strongly established in the markets and having low economies of scale. Vodafone and Telenor are also planning to enter the Canadian wireless market and the auction is going to happen in January, where four blocks of 700 megahertz spectrum are going to be up. Verizon, another telecom company, also seemed interested in being a part of the auction but finally decided not to rather participate in the auction. This thus shows that how a strong brand image and establishment could help an industry become less competitive and less threatening for the existing companies.