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Building a robust wireless network is an arduous task, requiring an arsenal of spectrum licenses and capital – preferably at a low cost – to pay for pricey equipment purchases. Now, Wind Mobile Corp. has both.

The upstart carrier said Thursday in a release that it has closed a round of senior secure debt financing for up to $425 million from a syndicate co-led by three of Canada’s largest banks to construct a faster, sturdier network using equipment from Nokia Corp. Wind plans to deploy an LTE network over the next 18 months that it hopes will entice new cellphone subscribers and keep satisfied the estimated million it serves today.

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This is a big deal for us. It says that Wind is here to stay

Alek Krstajic, chief executive at Wind, said that this credit arrangement, which was co-led by TD Securities, BMO Capital Markets and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, took five months to negotiate and has an interest rate in the three per cent range. It is a far cry from the annual rate of nine per cent that Wind had paid to service $150-million in debt since the company recapitalized under new ownership last September.