TORONTO – Globalive’s Wind Mobile officially launched to the public Wednesday, becoming the newest national wireless provider in Canada in over a decade.
CEO Ken Campbell and Globalive chair Anthony Lacavera christened the company’s flagship retail outlet, located on the ground floor of its corporate headquarters on Toronto’s waterfront, and detailed the upstart wireless company’s plans to take a bite out of the incumbents’ market share.
“The big three (wireless incumbents) have set the bar low, and we’re going to do everything possible to raise your expectations and give you what you deserve”, Lacavera said to a cheering mass of Wind staff and future customers who were lined up outside the store. “It’s December 16, 2009 – welcome to a game changing day, welcome to the first day of Wind Mobile. We’re good to go!”
The company is launching with four phones – the BlackBerry Bold 9700, the HTC Maple, Samsung Gravity 2 and the Huawei U7519, plus the Huawei E181 data stick. Campbell said that the phones and data stick are capable of speeds up to 7.2 megabits, with the possibility of ramping up to 21 megabits and beyond.
Unlike other telcos, Wind is asking customers to pay the full cost of the phones up front, ranging from $130 to $450 which Campbell said was “at cost”, rather than subsidizing them in exchange for long-term contracts.
“What we discovered (through market research) is that customers are willing to make that tradeoff”, said chief customer officer Chris Robbins.
Robbins said that 12 to 15 additional handsets “are on the road map” for next year, and confirmed that the company would “love to have the iPhone” should Apple produce a version compatible with company’s Advanced Wireless Spectrum network. He also confirmed that customers with their own AWS compatible handsets would be welcome to subscribe.
Wind unveiled three voice and text plans for $15, $35 and $45 per month, which all include unlimited Wind-to-Wind calling across Canada, free incoming text messages, and ‘call control’ features like caller ID, call waiting and call forward. Voice mail costs an additional $5 per month for the two cheaper plans, but is included in the $45 plan.
Its four data plans are priced at $10, two at $35, and $55 per month, with any voice plan. They include unlimited data, however, Wind said that it could slow, but not cap, the usage of customers who exceed 5GB of data within a given month to ensure that all customers remain satisfied with the network’s performance.
The company stressed that, unlike competitors, it will not charge for system access, activation or Enhanced 911 service; will not offer contracts; will not charge for changing or cancelling a plan; and will charge the same tariffs to its prepaid and postpaid customers.
All 18 Wind stores in the Greater Toronto Area opened their doors Wednesday, including the 13 kiosks in Blockbuster video stores and five standalone stores. Its three Calgary stores are scheduled to open on Friday.
Campbell said that the network will be rolling out in Vancouver, Ottawa and Edmonton in the new year, and that Wind plans to increase its coverage across all provinces “in the next couple of years.” He also confirmed that the company was in the final days of testing with a domestic roaming partner – rumoured to be Rogers – and would make that announcement shortly.
