In the latest push to increase high-speed Internet access in rural areas, Industry Minister James Moore says telecommunications companies could lose their right to certain wireless spectrums if they’re not using it.

In a statement Thursday, Moore said the government issued the spectrum licences to support fixed wireless services, which he says is the most affordable way to provide high-speed Internet in rural areas.

“If companies have this spectrum and have been squatting on it for years without using it, then it looks like they’re set to lose that spectrum,” said David Christopher, a spokesman for OpenMedia.ca, an Internet advocacy organization.

The organization estimates that residents of rural communities can face broadband Internet costs up to five times higher than in Canada’s major cities.

Licenses for the 2300 MHz and 3500 MHz spectrum, which were auctioned between 2004 and 2009, will come up for renewal in March 2014.

“Our government will only renew spectrum licences for those holders that have met all conditions of licence. Those that have not used the spectrum will lose it,” Moore said in a statement.

Those requirements include minimum levels of population coverage, which ranges from 15 per cent in rural communities like Pembroke, Ont. to 50 per cent in larger urban areas such as Sudbury or Barrie.

Telecommunications analyst Dvai Ghose said the requirements may work against new industry entrants like Wind Mobile which hold unused spectrum licences across the country.

“The irony is, the most likely people to lose licences under a new broad regime where you build or lose are the new entrants, not the incumbents,” Ghose said. “The government is supposed to be helping these new entrants.”

BCE Inc. is the single biggest owner of the spectrum licenses, holding more than a quarter of them.

Inukshuk Wireless, a 50/50 joint partnership between Bell and Rogers, holds a number of those licences and is currently building an LTE broadband wireless network with the spectrum, said Patricia Trott, a spokesperson for Rogers, in an email.

“Telus has always supported the requirement to build in rural areas that comes with spectrum licenses,” said Telus spokesperson Jill Yetman in an email. “Our 4G LTE network – the fastest wireless technology in the world – already reaches 80 per cent of all Canadians, with more communities being added each month.”

Analyst Iain Grant with the Seaboard Group said the Big Three telecom companies are more interested in expanding LTE technology into rural Canada rather than using the older spectrum.

“Typically over Canadian history, they would just sit on it until the licence expired. And then they’d renew it and use it for something else,” Grant said. “Moore is saying, ‘No, we want this to be used for rural broadband. You guys had the spectrum, you’re not using it. We’re going to take it away for somebody else to use it.’”

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Moore said the licence renewal policy outlined Thursday is consistent with the Harper government’s commitment to ensure consumers will have more choice, lower prices and better wireless service.