Public Mobile, ZTE and the Export-Import Bank of China have agreed to the terms of a $350M financing arrangement that supports Public Mobile’s plan to build a wireless network stretching across its licensed area from Windsor to Quebec City.
This vendor financing arrangement, combined with hundreds of millions of dollars in equity commitments from its shareholders, means Public Mobile has a fully funded business plan and can build out its entire licensed area.
From a national perspective, this partnership is important because it supports Public Mobile’s investment in building a competitive wireless network. It will also continue to create and provide Canadian jobs. Construction of the network has already generated 100 high tech jobs in Ontario and Quebec.
“This is a significant deal for both Public Mobile and ZTE,” said Alek Krstajic, CEO of Public Mobile. “ZTE provides the world’s top mobile operators with high-quality and high-capacity network performance,” added Krstajic.
ZTE is a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions and has provided products and services to major telecom operators in 140 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.
To see the complete press release, click here.
Tags: Cina, financing arrangement, partnership, ZTE | Posted in In the news
this is great news, because now public will put up a strong CDMA/LTE Network in the upcoming years, i just hope that they never change the way they opperate
Everybody Talk ^_^
So “Egyptian money” bad, “Chinese money” good? Is that how it works or is that the CEO’s Fox News persona only?
Ain’t hypocrisy great?
@Keith – The difference is the China Exim financing is a standard vendor financing deal. Public Mobile is loaned money to support its network build-out with the lender having no say in how the company is operated. (This would be almost identical to a loan provided by Export Development Canada, our equivalent of the China Exim Bank, to support the export of Canadian products.)
The difference between the EXIM loan and what Alek spoke to on the FOX interview is not the source of the funds (both are foreign), it is the purpose and nature of the financing.
@Public Mobile
Nice effort at splitting hairs. But then one wouldn’t expect corporate PR to admit to hypocrisy.
So when Public Mobile takes Chinese money (let’s call it standard vendor financing) from a branch of the Chinese government that’s better than Wind Mobile taking money from a private investor from Egypt, simply because the money Public Mobile is borrowing is pay for network build out? I am curious what you guys think that Globalive borrowed Orascom’s money for?
Moreover, wasn’t ZTE once a state-owned enterprise?
Sorry, but at this point, Public Mobile’s corporate behaviour and flexible ethics look a lot like the practices of the Big 3.
This has troubled me sine last year, even more so now since the recent court decision against the current government and by default, Wind. Your final sentance in the post above says, “…is not the source of the funds (both are foreign), it is the purpose and nature of the financing.” Looking at the purpose and nature of both Wind’s and Public’s funding, I see very little difference between the two. So how could one be any worse than the other. I understand that there are rumblings to look in to not only your Chinese backers but your US ones also, it also looks like Mobilicity’s being dragged into this also with their “un-named” foreign inverstors.
Happy now? Happy that you’ve more or less neutered any chance of serious ompetition in the mobile sector in Canada?
I can tell you I’m not. No, not one little bit.