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Darren Entwistle, chief executive of Telus Corp., told the Financial Post during an editorial board meeting Thursday that the government’s campaign to have at least four wireless carriers in a every market will lead to overspending by the incumbents, could leave one of them behind technology-wise, and even threaten investment in services for rural communities.

The government plans to auction off wireless spectrum in the prized 700-megahertz frequency band in January but the deadline for deposits is September 17 and Mr. Entwistle is conducting a campaign to convince the public as well as government officials, opposition politicians and the unions representing telecom employees that the rules need to change before then.

The radio airwaves at stake, which became available after the transition to digital television, are highly prized for their ability to travel long distances and easily penetrate buildings. This type of spectrum is in short supply and wireless carriers are desperate to get their hands on it to build the networks of the future and accommodate the video-streaming and web surfing data demands of the mobile world.

There’s going to be a bloodbath, because people are not going to give up on getting that block

His primary concern is that if a foreign player with massive resources such as Verizon Communications Inc. takes part in the Canadian auction, it would be treated as a “new entrant” and permitted to bid on up to two out of four prime blocks of spectrum.

The Canadian incumbents would be capped at just one block, leaving Telus, BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. as well as smaller regional players such as Videotron fighting over the two remaining blocks of spectrum.