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Wind Mobile Sets Sights On Mobilicity Customers

Posted in Commentary with tags , on October 3, 2013 by itnerd

At the moment, Mobilicity customers might feel skittish as the company has filed for creditor protection. At this point, it’s business as usual. But hearing the words “creditor” and “protection” in the same sentence of the name of your wireless provider may make one look for other options. Knowing that, Wind Mobile is trying to entice Mobilicity users to switch to Wind with this Tweet:

I suspect that this is going to be the beginning of a larger attempt to woo these customers. This of course is the last thing Mobilicity needs. Thus they posted this Tweet as a preemptive move:

 

You have to wonder how many people will take advantage of the Wind offer, or stay with Mobilicity. Any bets on either?

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Wind Mobile To Bid In Spectrum Auction

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on September 16, 2013 by itnerd

This doesn’t surprise me in the least.

The National Post is reporting that Wind Mobile is going into the spectrum auction. And they’re going in big:

Wind is the first of the trio of new entrants, which also includes Mobilicity and Public Mobile, to declare its intentions to bid in next year’s auction.

While Canada’s dominant carriers BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. are limited to bidding on just one block of spectrum out of the four blocks available, others can bid on up to two blocks.

The cost of placing a 5% deposit to bid nationally on two out of the four blocks amounts to about $16-million.

Wind did not disclose whether it plans to bid regionally or nationally as the players are barred from commenting publicly on their auction strategies.

If they do win some spectrum, or both pieces of spectrum that they can bid on, then they can step up to the big time. That in turn would make them someone to fear if your one of the big three. Though, they are looking for a buyer at the moment. Although that may change if they win.

I wonder who else will enter. The deadline is tomorrow. Stay tuned.

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Wind Mobile CEO Takes Shots At Big Three Via Blog Post

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on August 28, 2013 by itnerd

Never a guy to hide his feelings, Anthony Lacavera who is the CEO of Wind Mobile has posted a blog entry on the company blog that makes some very pointed remarks towards the big three and their attempts to sway the opinions of the Canadian Government and the public at large.

The CWTA claims that if Verizon were to enter the Canadian market in the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction, Canadian firms would be “blocked from bidding on 50% of our own country’s assets.” This assumes that the Big Three are the only “Canadian firms” – they’d like to be but that is precisely would the policy is designed to prevent. Instead, the auction will be an open and competitive process with national and regional carriers bidding fiercely at every stage.

In fact, when the policy first came out, we were very disappointed. In our view, the policy (still) virtually guarantees that the Big Three, who already have almost all the spectrum in this country (most of which was given to them by the government for free), will acquire 75% of the prime spectrum available.

The truth is the auction structure for 700MHz is not unfair to the Big Three at all. Perhaps Bell, TELUS and Rogers have lost some perspective after decades of getting handouts and protections from the Canadian people. It’s understandable, I suppose. After all, in the early days of cellphones and wireless technology the government simply gave them bucketloads of Canadian spectrum for free. If that is their baseline for what’s “fair”, then it’s not hard to understand why the Big Three feel so hard done by when they have to actively compete.

The CWTA did get one thing right, though. As Canadians we do indeed “instinctively know unfairness when we see it.” For many Canadians, they see it every month when they open up a cellular phone bill from one of the Big Three.

Ouch. That hurts. He also has something to say about how the Canadian Government has handled this file:

In particular, we should all commend Minister Moore and the Prime Minister for their unflinching commitment to Canadian consumers in the face of this aggressive and dishonest campaign led by Bell and TELUS.

At least he likes somebody.

Lacavera has always been very outspoken in terms of how the wireless market works in Canada, and typically has shared his views with anyone who will listen to him. Thus this post doesn’t come as a great shock to me. It’s likely to act as a lightning rod for those who want Verizon in Canada or change in the behavior of the big three.

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Rogers Comes Up With Plan To Defend Itself Against Verizon

Posted in Commentary with tags , on August 2, 2013 by itnerd

The Globe And Mail is reporting that Rogers has come up with a very ingenious plan to defend itself against Verizon without in theory ticking off the Canadian Government. Here’s the plan:

Rogers Communications Inc. is backing a Toronto-based investment firm, Birch Hill Equity Partners Management Inc., on a proposed acquisition of Wind Mobile, a financially struggling wireless company with about 600,000 customers across the country, according to five sources familiar with the matter.

The plan would see Birch Hill take a controlling ownership stake in Wind. Rogers would contribute money, but would not get an equity stake in the No. 4 national player. Instead, it would gain a network-sharing agreement with Wind, allowing it to use the smaller company’s spectrum to expand its high-speed wireless service at a time when Canadians are using ever-increasing amounts of data on smartphones and tablet computers.

Birch Hill is also looking at an acquisition of Mobilicity, the industry’s No. 5 national player, say multiple sources – with Rogers as its likely partner. People close to the talks say it is the private-equity firm, not Rogers, leading the deals.

I must admit that that this is very smart. It allows Rogers to take the pieces that Verizon would want off the table without sparking the ire of the Canadian Government as they wouldn’t be the ones doing the buying. There’s a catch though:

But if the government were to allow the deals, it would likely cause an outcry from rivals BCE Inc. and Telus Corp.

That would be a bit of a problem as they’re all friends right now under the logic of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” But for Rogers, the logic has clearly changed to “everybody for themselves and to hell with the rest of you” as clearly they want no part of having to compete against Verizon. Now Rogers and Birch Hill aren’t commenting on this. But seeing as the Canadian Government shot the attempt of Telus to buy Mobilicity out of the sky, it will be interesting to see what the feds say and do about this potential deal.

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Verizon May Be Coming To Canada…. Bell, Telus, Rogers Freak

Posted in Commentary with tags , on June 20, 2013 by itnerd

I’ve been saying for years that the only way that the absolutely obscene prices that Canadians pay for wireless service will change is by foreign carriers to come in and force the incumbent carriers (being Rogers, Bell and Telus) to lower their prices. Well, that day might be at hand. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Verizon might be looking to enter the Canadian market by buying Wind Mobile:

Verizon, which is based in New York, has considering entering Canada’s wireless business as that country’s government seeks to jump start competition in the country. The Globe and Mail newspaper reported this week that Verizon has held exploratory talks with Wind Mobile in recent weeks, but said the discussions are at an early stage.

If this actually pans out, you have to believe that Bell, Rogers, and Telus will do everything possible to try and block it. But seeing as the current government is all for lowering prices of wireless services in Canada, I’m thinking that the Canadian Government will likely green light this. Then the real game begins. Verizon has deep pockets so their network will likely expand quickly and their pricing structure will likely follow. That’s bad news for the big three. But great news for consumers. What’s even better is that if Verizon comes, others will likely follow. That will be better news for consumers. 

You have to believe that execs at the big three are freaking out big time as you read this. It’s about time that they had a reason to worry. 

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Wind Mobile In The Market For Mobilicity

Posted in Commentary with tags , on June 5, 2013 by itnerd

Just a day after the Canadian Government deep sixed the Telus Mobilicity deal, comes news that upstart wireless provider Wind Mobile wants to grab Mobilicity. Here’s what Wind CEO Anthony Lacavera had to say:

Lacavera said Mobilicity’s spectrum if combined with Wind Mobile’s would allow the combined company to build out a faster, next-generation network that will handle heavy data use from smartphones and tablets.

“We can’t go to the next generation without more spectrum,” he said, calling the merging of the two companies a “logical combination.”

I have to agree with him. Let’s think about this for a second. The combined company would have just under a million subscribers. Now Rogers has 25 million subscribers so that’s just a drop in the bucket. But the big news is that the combined company would have access to a pile of spectrum that would allow them to truly compete against Rogers, Telus, and Bell as they would be able to attract subscribers because of their coverage.

I’m guessing at a few people at Rogers, Telus and Bell are saying “oh crap” right about now and hoping that this doesn’t happen.

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Is Wind Mobile Up For Sale?

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 23, 2013 by itnerd

The news is circulating that upstart mobile carrier Wind Mobile is up for sale:

Canaccord Genuity analyst Dvai Ghose says he’s heard from several sources that VimpelCom has started the process to sell Wind Mobile, launched in December 2009.

A separate source familiar with the process also confirmed to The Canadian Press that Wind Mobile is being put up for sale.

If true, this sucks. Canada needs a much more competitive wireless landscape as there is not enough competition with the oligopoly of Bell, Rogers, and Telus. One can hope that Wind isn’t purchased by one of those three and that whomever purchases them has deep enough pockets to make Wind Mobile a real player in Canada.

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Wind Mobile Lawsuit Saga Ends As Supreme Court Of Canada Refuses To Hear Appeal From Public Mobile

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 26, 2012 by itnerd

You might remember that Public Mobile was so ticked off by the fact that Wind Mobile was allowed to exist in Canada that they went to court to try and take them out. Well, that saga came to an end today as the Supreme Court Of Canada refused to hear the case:

The court’s ruling brings an end to a seesaw battle that had seen Cabinet overrule the CRTC, only to have a lower court overrule that decision before being ultimately rejected by Canada’s highest court.

Here’s what Wind Mobile had to say:

“Wind is interested in fighting in the marketplace … not in fighting in courtrooms,” Wind chairman Tony Lacavera said. “We’re extremely pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision, which will allow us to tie off this loose end and continue working” to serve Wind’s customer base of 400,000 people, Lacavera said.

“I feel really good now about approaching our investors and new potential investors that can back us now with confidence that all of our regulatory and legal issues are fully and finally behind us.”

Public Mobile likely isn’t happy about this. But I failed to find a press release regarding this or any sort of comment from them. Oh well. At least now both of them can focus on taking market share from Bell, Telus, and Rogers.

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Wind Mobile Backer Calls Investing In Canada “A Mistake”

Posted in Commentary with tags on November 18, 2011 by itnerd

Naguib Sawiris is a guy who’s loud and bombastic. But he’s also very successful having made Orascom Telecom a significant player in the Middle East and Africa cell phone marketplace as well as backing Wind Mobile Canada. Thus, you have to at least listen to what he has to say. Such as what he said to the Globe And Mail recently:

Naguib Sawiris, the brash telecom mogul who started an Egyptian political party after the revolution there, says he was misled by the Canadian government, regrets “totally” his decision to invest here and tells other international financiers not to invest in Canada.

“I tell you we will not bid – unless they set aside the frequencies, unless they really show seriousness that they want to create competition,” Mr. Sawiris told The Globe and Mail’s editorial board Thursday. “But to say, ‘We want to create competition, we want your money.’ They take our money and they leave us to the dogs.”

Ouch. There was more:

“Anybody who asks me, I tell him, ‘Look, we are the stupid investors that poured a billion dollars into Canada here and created 1,000 new jobs, please don’t do this mistake. Don’t come here,’” Mr. Sawiris said. When asked whether he regretted his decision, he added, “Totally. I would actually, if they would give me my money back, minus 10 per cent, I would take it any day.”

Oh yeah, when it comes to the “big three” in Canada, namely Rogers, Bell and Telus, here’s what he had to say:

“You have the most inefficient operators in the world. And why are they like that? If they were that good, why are they just in Canada here?” he asked. “Why don’t we have Rogers in the U.K. or Germany? Why is Vodafone everywhere? Why is France Telecom everywhere?”

He does has a point. Having spent extensive amounts of time in countries such as the UK and Germany, I can say that wireless carriers there are out to provide the best service for the lowest price. That doesn’t happen in Canada. Also one suspects that if any of the “big three” set up shop anywhere else on planet Earth, they’d get their butts kicked due to the fact that they don’t know how to compete.

Now here’s the other side of the coin. What I suspect that Sawiris is doing is shaking things up prior to the upcoming government auction of wireless licenses so that he can slant things in his favor. It’s not what I’d do, but I’m a computer nerd and not a PR expert. And its worked as he’s now got the attention of the government as well as two of the “big three.” The real test is what happens the auction takes place though. Stay tuned for that next year.

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Court Rules That Wind Mobile Is Canadian…. Public Mobile Appeals

Posted in Commentary with tags , on June 10, 2011 by itnerd

Remember that case where Wind Mobile was ruled not to be Canadian enough and then the Canadian Government appealed the decision. Well, the decision has been announced and guess what? They’re Canadian enough:

The judges wrote that Globalive was a “a Canadian owned and controlled company” and upheld cabinet’s decision to allow it to operate.

Ever since a federal regulator blocked Globalive from launching cellular brand Wind Mobile in October of 2009, the company has been on a roller-coaster ride to prove its compliance with Canada’s strict foreign ownership restrictions. The process has involved endless court battles, thrown the sector into a period of prolonged uncertainty, and involved everyone from Canada’s biggest wireless companies to the federal cabinet. Wednesday’s court ruling appears to resolve that confusion.

It has also done much to resolve an awkward problem for the federal government, which was accused of trying to alter Canada’s foreign-ownership laws by decree, outside Parliament, when it intervened on Globalive’s behalf.

Of course, all is not well in the universe. Public Mobile is appealing the decision all the way to Supreme Court Of Canada:

But for Public Mobile, a wireless rival to Globalive’s Wind Mobile cellular brand, clarity will come only when the Supreme Court of Canada rules on the matter – or rejects Public Mobile’s attempt late Wednesday to seek leave to appeal to the highest court.

“I challenge anyone to crisply articulate for me what the current situation actually is,” said Bob Boron, chief regulatory officer for Public Mobile.

So the circus continues. One can only hope that the Supreme Court doesn’t hear this appeal. Or the Canadian Government does the right thing and let anyone who wants to compete into the market regardless of who owns them.

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