Canada on Tuesday has launched the auction of several blocks of 700 megahertz (MHz) wireless spectrum to telecoms companies operating in Canada, where large players are expected to participate. At least one however has backed out due to lack of funding.

A total of 11 national and regional wireless providers have been approved by the government to participate in the contest. The bidding, which is expected to take several weeks, aims to distribute 20-year leases on new 700-megahertz wireless spectrum frequencies which they will use to deliver voice and data services.

But on the last minute on Monday, Wind Mobile has backed out of the competition due to failure to secure the necessary funding from its main shareholder, Vimpelcom Ltd.

This meant that the 10 remaining participants could receive more bandwidth.

Among the 10 bidders include Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications, Telus, Quebec's Videotron, Manitoba's MTS Inc and Atlantic Canada's Bragg Communications Inc.

"I'm expecting some jostling for position in terms of which carriers get which blocks," Mark Goldberg, a Thornhill, Ont., telecom consultant and founder of the annual Canadian Telecom Summit, was quoted by Yahoo News. However, he believed "all of the current service providers should be able to come away with spectrum" because some of them operate in mutually exclusive territories.

The Canadian government decided to conduct the auction to generate much needed financial infusion into the federal coffers. But experts this won't be happening due to the lack of new foreign entrants into the industry.

"I think Canada is seen as a place where there is some money to be made," Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, told the Canadian Press.

"There's always the prospect of another entrant, but part of that may well require government involvement to create the necessary conditions to make that easier."

U.S. giant Verizon earlier was part of the proscribed list expected to submit a bidding. But it became one of the companies that backed out of the race in September 2013, effectively dropping plans for expansion in the north.

Suffice to say, the three big players Bell, Rogers and Telus will continue to dominate the market. The three have a combined subscribership base of 25 million.

Winners of the blocks of 700 MHz spectrum will be announced within five days of the auction's close, Industry Canada said in a briefing on Monday.

Not all bids are expected to come in equal simply because not all spectrum blocks are equal.

Yahoo reported that in the North, bidding may start at $142,000 for an unpaired spectrum block. The opening bid however in the more lucrative southern Ontario market for an unpaired block may start at $13,370,000.

"As has been the case with all previous spectrum auctions, funds generated by the auction will be remitted to the government's Consolidated Revenue Fund, which is administered by the receiver general," the government said.

The last time Canada made an auction in 2008, government coffers took in more than $4.2 billion.