Wind Mobile
WIND slashes prices on entire device lineup
Aug 13th
We spoke yesterday on WIND Mobile surpassing the 100,000 subscriber mark earlier than expected, and with promotions like this it comes as no surprise.
On top of the $150 porting credit and 50% off for 6 months, you will now save between $20-$40 off of the handset of your choice. There is no word yet on the new back-to school device lineup WIND has planned, but these price drops probably mean a late spring cleanup to make way for them.
To learn more about which devices have been discounted check out WIND’s website, but remember to act fast as this promotion ends September 15th, 2010.
[Via MobileSyrup]
Follow me on twitterWIND Mobile doing better than expected?
Aug 12th
With great leadership comes great results and WIND Mobile is a prime example of this.
Despite hiccups leading to a delayed launch, and increasing competition in both the Canadian wireless sector as a whole and the rapidly growing “Unlimited” market, WIND led by Anthony (Tony) Lacavera has commanded a confident stance and has always fought back against adversity.
Today, WIND released a press statement stating that as of July 2010, they officially exceeded 100,000 users. Pretty impressive for a startup carrier that is just over 6 months old that no one ever expected to succeed in the Canadian wireless oligopoly.
Anthony Lacavera was quoted saying:
“We will continue to rally for increased wireless choice in Canada. We will continue to expand and grow, and we welcome competition as part of our commitment to offering Canadians the kind of mobile experience they want and deserve.”
Ken Campbell, CEO of WIND had this to say as well:
“We’re seeing strong customer growth. Results show that Canadians are welcoming competitive choice and the great value WIND is bringing to the marketplace. We will continue to encourage this growth by extending our offer of $150 credit to customers who bring their phone numbers to WIND by September 15.”
It’s a known fact that WIND forecasts about 1.5 million subscribers over the next 3 years and at the rate they are going, this doesn’t seem to far fetched.
Congratulations, Mr. Lacavera and WIND Mobile on your success!
[via CNW]
Follow me on twitterCanadian Contracts Are Vampires: Study
Aug 11th
Get it? Flipout?
Canadians pay too much for their monthly cell phone bill, and are dragged into lengthy contracts that punish consumers for ending them before their term, according to a SeaBord Group study entitled “Death Grip.” (Great name!)
There will likely be another wireless spectrum auction in 2012 or 2013, and could increase competition again in the country, as the auction did in 2008, leading to the creation of WIND Mobile and Mobilicity, two companies who are completely contract-free.
But these companies will always be at a disadvantage to the three incumbents, Rogers, Telus and Bell, in part because they are established brands within the country, whose networks extend nationally, but also because they offer huge phone subsidies when signing a contract.
The problem comes in when customers want to remove themselves from the contract; they have already received promotional prices on their phone, and likely preferred monthly rates on their plan, but the cancellation fee is directly tied to how many months remain in his or her contract. Sometimes these penalties can cost more than the cost of the phone itself, which is the whole reason the contract exists in the first place.
But contracts are guaranteed revenue for these carriers, and they are loathe to change their business model, especially for higher-end business and data clients, who spend $100+ every month on their smartphone plan.
The report goes on to say that even though the Canadian carriers have less “buying power” when purchasing handsets, the discrepancy between the cost to the consumer and to the carrier is too high, and consumers end up with the brunt of it.
Read the entire report, and see for yourself.
(via The Globe and Mail)
WIND Mobile Getting High End Motorola Milestone XT720 Android Device?
Aug 7th
This will be a nice surprise if it pans out! An inventory screenshot of the Motorola Milestone XT720 Android 2.1-powered device has been leaked from WIND Mobile, and, if true, will be the only high-end Android device to hit the new carrier, and its second Android device overall after the Huawei U8100.
The XT720 is a much better device, matching the Droid’s odd resolution of 854×480 on a 3.7″ display, 8MP camera with flash, and media controls built into the device. Were this to come to WIND, it would be a huge get for the provider whose AWS devices are looking a bit long in the tooth after the premieres of the iPhone 4, Samsung Vibrant, HTC Desire and the BlackBerry Torch. This could get a lot of people to switch over, as, knowing they will never receive the iPhone (unless T-Mobile in the US gets it) their next best smartphone option is an Android-powered device. This should be upgraded to 2.2 eventually, as the Droid, Droid X and Droid 2 are all going to get the upgrade in the coming weeks.
We’ll keep our eyes peeled for you.
(via Mobile Syrup)
WIND Gets Even With Rogers
Jul 15th
Remember that contract-killing campaign WIND Mobile launched not too long ago called “Everybody Winds?” aimed at seducing disgruntled consumers nearing the end of their contracts with the big 3 to port over to WIND. The offer was simple: bring a bill from your respective carrier and receive a $150 bill credit (paid in installments over 6 months) to help offset the sometimes exorbitant cancellation fees one may face.
Fast forward to July, (WIND is gaining customer satisfaction in waves) and Rogers (knowing they need to respond to this new discount trend) announces Chat-r, pitting it directly against WIND Mobile and Mobilicity. In true never back down mind-set WIND CEO Anthony (Tony) Lacavera humbly says “Bring it” in a recent interview with BNN, whereas Mobilicity’s CEO Dave Dobbin decided to launch a lawsuit against Rogers, citing an “Anti-Compete” clause being obstructed.
Well, WIND has now taken this newfound competition to the next level, with a new campaign launched directly at pulling customers from Rogers’ in-house brands Rogers Wireless, Fido and the yet-to-launch Chat-r. The offer is the same: $150 paid out over 6 months, but nowhere in the ad do they mention Telus, Kudo, Bell, Virgin or Solo. Is this WIND saying “Don’t get mad, get even?” or is there other motives? You decide.
[Via WindMobile.ca]
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The Battle For Canada: Chat-r vs Wind vs Mobilicity vs itself
Jul 9th
Is it fair that Rogers, the established giant of mobile dominance in Canada, and especially in Toronto, is launching a discount brand, Chat-r, to compete directly with the two newly-launched, low-cost providers in WIND Mobile and Mobilicity? John Bitove, Chairman of Mobilicity, doesn’t seem to think so.
After learning of Rogers’ intention to squarley aim for the the small companies’ bottom lines, he has filed a complaint to the Canadian Competition Bureau. “They’re trying to destroy our success,” he said to the Globe and Mail. Not surprisingly, Mobilicity is less keen than WIND to see Rogers attempt to eat into their limited market penetration, as the company only officially launched in May of this year. WIND has been around for almost a year now, and, while not the run-away success story that many hoped it would be, has certainly created a new sense of urgency in the Canadian mobile market for fairer prices and more included features. With unlimited internet usage, and low talk-and-text plans, WIND and Mobilicity have aimed themselves at urbanites who don’t need a great number of features on a phone, as well as new immigrants, who want cheaper ways to call back home. Chat-r does not intend to offer data connectivity with their talk-and-text plans, though those will be unlimited.
A few days ago, Anthony Lacavera stated that Chat-r is exactly what this country needs: more competition. On a BNN news segment, he said that Chat-r is “great for consumers… the big guys are starting to react, and the more they react, the better we look.” This heavily contrasts Bitove’s view, and brings home the idea that WIND, with their Egyptian financial backers, Orascom Telecom Holding, seem more capable of weathering out the short-term growth issues than does Mobilicity. Certainly, Rogers is going to have a much easier time than either WIND or Mobilicity in bringing Chat-r to the market, since they are providing similar service and similar prices without having to build an entirely new network infrastructure to it; instead, they are piggy-backing off existing Rogers towers in the same locations that the former carriers have launched in: Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa, Edmonton and Vancouver.
I don’t necessarily see Chat-r as a full-fledged success from the get-go. Sure, Rogers is going to leverage its own brand when advertising it, unlike with Fido which operates completely independently of its big brother. But with the knowledge that Chat-r is owned by Rogers will also come the understanding that it is not the nimble, young company that WIND is, nor the forward-looking enterprise that is Mobilicity. It’s Rogers under a new banner, and for some people, especially those that have been burned by the company in the past, Chat-r must be a huge turn-off.
CTS 2010: WIND Mobile CEO Anthony Lacavera Keynote Speech [Video]
Jun 9th
Simply put, Anthony Lacavera is as strong a speaker as he is a tireless CEO. Since the notorious spectrum auction of 2008 he has maintained confidence and composure in the strong face of wireless adversity that is the Canadian telecom industry. What makes the delivery of this speech so powerful is the fact that WIND has only been live for 6 months (June 11th officially) and to now they have lived up to each promise made on their “conversation” blog (ie. no contracts or any hidden fees), in which he and his marketing team are extremely active.
He declared aggravation with how Canadian customers are still paying 2.2% more than those of our American counterparts; how we as an industry are limited to fewer hardware choices and plans; that we are last in wireless penetration among 30 countries worldwide; and, in his words, “trash talking our national carriers has become as much of a Canadian past time as hockey.”
Of the 15 minute speech, what stuck with me the most (and the portion I am sharing on video) is how he speaks openly on how the Big Three (Rogers, Bell, Telus) have treated WIND as a fly to be swatted and not legitimate competition. Their marketing campaigns have been effective in promoting the misgivings many consumers have with the incumbent providers, while stating confidently that WIND is alive, well, and here for the long haul.
[Click here for mobile friendly viewing]
North Americans Take Heed: This Is Data Usage At Its Finest
Jun 4th
The big three carriers claim they don’t market “Unlimited” data plans because average mobile data user doesn’t come close to their standard data cap of xxMB, and this is true nine out of ten times. Recently, AT&T, who had an Unlimited package (which glorified new iPad owners) decided they were going to eliminate it it in exchange for a cheaper, capped plan.
With all this talk of data and usage, a good question gets raised: “What is the most mobile data a person has used on a given carrier in a month?” Iain Marlow, of the Globe and Mail, decided to do some research on this with one of the only carriers in Canada offering “Unlimited” data as a market offer, WIND Mobile, and you will be surprised at the findings. Anthony Lacavera, CEO of WIND released the following stats exclusively to The Globe of the heaviest mobile data consumers on their network in the country. The results are as follows:
The Top 10 Heaviest Users of Data on WIND Mobile’s Cellular Network (Measured in Gigabytes Per Month)
- 118.56
- 95.12
- 55.32
- 51.70
- 44.51
- 39.21
- 33.72
- 33.59
- 28.94
- 26.85
For the record, half of those are mobile data sticks and half of them are smart phone tetherers, who are attaching their smart phone to their laptop and using it as a modem. Yes, like most carriers, WIND still has a fair use “throttling” policy in effect for those who eat through data like a buffet, but due to the light user base, WIND’s network is fairly open, leaving plenty of room for these heavy consumers.
In my opinion, to use that much data in a given month is irresponsible, but the user is definitely getting his/her money’s worth. This is an exact reason why the big three would never follow suit. There are too many users on an already-congested Canadian HSPA series of networks.
Read the full story at the Globe and Mail.
Follow me on twitterThe Day Has Arrived, WIND Mobile Launches in Vancouver, BC
Jun 3rd
Following up on what we reported a few days ago, WIND will officially activate its “Home Zone” service in Vancouver, as well as open the doors to its flagship store at 10am to the press and media, with a public opening an hour later at 11am.
The event will be co-hosted by WIND Mobile CEO Ken Campbell. Chairman Anthony Lacavera, and CMO Scott Campbell, and rounds off their originally announced 5 city Canadian launch. With the launch they are also extending their “Everybody WIND’s” promotion through to June 30th, so let’s see how welcoming Vancouverites are to something new.
Read the official press release here
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WIND Mobile Officially Launching in Vancouver June 3rd
May 31st
West Coasters you are in luck, as announced a few weeks ago, WIND Mobile is officially launching in Vancouver this Thursday, June 3rd 2010, at 10am at their flagship store 116 Davie St, Yaletown, BC.
This launch will round off the carriers 5 city Canadian deployment (Which has already launched in Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, and Calgary). And in conjunction with the launch, WIND is extending their 6 month 50% promotion called “Everybody WINDs” through to June 30th!
If you are in the area check out the festivities and let us know how it is!
To read up more on the post in WIND’s official blog click here
To read up on the plans and services currently offered from WIND Mobile click here
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