The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition the feds will auction off a prime chunk of the public airwaves in March of next year, raising at least $162-million for federal coffers and, they hope, prompting more competition in the mobile phone market. The Globe's Richard Blackwell writes Industry Canada released the timing and some technical details of the auction on Monday, in its draft of rules for how companies will bid for the so-called AWS-3 spectrum, which will allow carriers to boost their network capacity and meet the demand for more data. The government also wants to help boost struggling smaller wireless players such as Mobilicity and Wind Mobile. Sixty per cent of the AWS-3 spectrum will go to the smaller players already active in the market, and will not be available to the Big Three. There will also be restrictions on the transfer of spectrum among players after the auction is complete. That will allow the government to ensure the Big Three do not eventually get their hands on it. Strengthening those smaller mobile phone companies may make them more attractive to investors interested in buying them up and possibly consolidating their operations, thus creating a strong fourth competitor.