Wind Mobile is the “big winner” of Catalyst Capital Groups Inc.’s decision to drop out of the 700 MHz auction in the absence of other potential bidders for the much-coveted airwaves in Alberta, Ontario, and British Columbia, industry experts said. “Wind should be opening bottles of Ontario wine this morning,” Iain Grant, a Montreal-based telecom industry analyst with the Seaboard Group, said in a telephone interview Thursday. “I think it’s very good news for Wind.” In an updated list of auction participants posted on the department's...
Globalive Wireless Management Corp., operator of Wind Mobile, is looking at buying Mobilicity because it needs more spectrum in order to roll out an LTE network, Wind CEO Anthony Lacavera said. “Spectrum is the real estate of our business, as you know,” Lacavera said in a phone interview. “We have kind of used the real estate we’ve got, and we’ve deployed 3G services on that. We now need a new chunk of real estate to roll out 4G, or LTE services.” “So...
Some of the incumbents' new and cheaper roaming plans offer small data packages that smartphone users will quickly exceed, incurring extra charges, said John Lawford, executive director of the...
Wind Mobile, operated by Globalive Wireless Management Corp., launched its first handset trade-in program, allowing customers to trade in old devices for credit that can be applied to new devices. Wind said in a release Thursday that new or existing customers can bring an old phone from "any carrier, any model" to Wind stores and "trade...
Wind Mobile is promising to cover the remainder of its “tab” customers’ device subsidies after 24 months, the company said. Under Wind’s tab model, customers can receive up to a $300 subsidy on a new handset device when they sign up for mobile services. Wind reduces how much the customer owes on that device subsidy by an amount...
Accelero Capital Holding's deal to purchase Allstream from Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. will give the company a cross-country fibre network that would provide backhaul support for mobile wireless services and bundled Internet, voice and mobile wireless contracts in the business market. That is, of course, if...
Former Wind Mobile backer Naguib Sawiris said he is re-entering the Canadian telecom market with a “long-term commitment” and the purchase of Allstream from Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. in a deal valued at $520 million. Sawiris' Paris-based investment firm, Accelero Capital Holdings, which has also submitted an offer to purchase Wind Mobile Canada from Amsterdam-based VimpelCom Ltd., will purchase the Allstream business services unit and its national fibre network, Accelero said in a release Friday. "This investment reflects Accelero's long-term commitment to the...
Delays in Industry Canada's spectrum auction process are looking more likely by the day, analysts said. They said new wireless entrants will need more time to look at consolidation options after...
The CRTC should model its future code of conduct for wireless carriers on similar consumer wireless legislation passed in the Quebec legislature, Canada’s wireless carriers said. In regulatory...