The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition Telus has struck an agreement to buy faltering carrier Mobilicity for $380-million. The Globe's Rita Trichur and Boyd Erman write the deal places the federal government's ambitions to create more competition in the wireless business at risk. One possible out for Ottawa is to help create a viable fourth player out of the pack of stragglers. However, that will require someone with a big chequebook and the desire to keep fighting Telus, BCE and Rogers Communications. "If the government blocks the [Mobilicity] sale, we will be left asking who will finance these independent new entrants, especially if they can never be sold to the incumbents who are the only obvious buyers," wrote Dvai Ghose, a telecom analyst with Canaccord Genuity, in a note to clients. "Perhaps the free-market-focused Conservative government will eventually come to the conclusion that the market could not support a fourth player in every region and so it should concentrate on managing the incumbents rather than artificially forcing competition." Minister Paradis signalled he would not rush his decision on Telus and Mobilicity. Mobilicity says it has no other option than to be sold to Telus.