Rogers seeking to use private capital firm to buy wireless spectrum: report

A possible attempt by Rogers Communications to head off competition from U.S. giant Verizon by picking up one of Canada’s smaller wireless carriers would be subject to plenty of scrutiny from federal regulators.

A published report Friday said that Toronto-based private capital company Birch Hill Partners was working on a plan with Rogers to buy a controlling stake in struggling carrier Wind Mobile.

The report said Rogers wouldn’t get an equity stake in Wind, but would contribute money and gain access to Wind’s spectrum to add to its own network to meet the growing use of data on smartphones and tablets.

A spokesman for new Industry Minister James Moore wouldn’t comment specifically on the report but said that the government has indicated it’s not willing to change the rules it set out at the end of June.

“Any requests received by the department will be reviewed based on that framework,” spokesman Sebastien Gariepy said in an email.

Birch Hill and Rogers declined to comment.

The Globe and Mail also reported that Rogers had offered more than $1 billion to buy Wind Mobile, which has more than 600,000 customers.

Earlier this week, the industry minister repeated the federal government’s stance on the need for four wireless carriers in each of Canada’s regional markets.