Company challenges incumbents in wireless communications market with offers like unlimited talk and data
Gillian Shaw
Sun
Anthony Lacavera (right), chairman of Wind Mobile, watches the company’s first Lower Mainland customer, Nathan Bolton, use the new service during a press conference to launch the company’s mobile carrier in Yaletown. Photograph by: Nick Procaylo, PNG, Vancouver Sun
Wind Mobile launched in Vancouver on Thursday with a lineup of people outside its Yaletown store looking for lower-cost wireless service.
“I’m going to be a new Wind customer,” said Winston Yuen, who was at the Davie Street location, where Wind chairman Tony Lacavera announced Vancouver marks the sixth city in the new wireless entrant’s rollout across Canada. “I want something that doesn’t bind you to a contract. Wind is very flexible and consumer friendly.
“I know there have been startup problems, but it has a lot of potential. It could shake up the marketplace,” said Yuen.
Lacavera told a news conference his company is doing just that, despite criticism over dropped calls and other service issues.
“We are absolutely thrilled to bring this new network to Vancouver,” he said in a speech at the entrance to a new store that is marked by a statue honouring the company’s social media stalwarts — consumers Wind characterizes as “the real heroes — who have been contributing their view of what a wireless company’s offerings should be.
Asked about complaints about the company’s service, Lacavera said consumers are welcoming the competition in Canada’s wireless market.
“We have no contracts,” he said. “We have to earn people’s business every month. There are hundreds of Canadians every day who are voting with their feet and coming to Wind.”
While Lacavera and Wind chief executive Ken Campbell refused to disclose subscriber numbers or the net gain taking into account people leaving the service after trying it, Campbell said next month is on track to be the company’s best ever.
The startup is taking on the incumbents in the wireless space, offering no-contract pricing, unlimited talk and data plans and tethering for data (which allows users to share an Internet connection between devices) included at no extra cost — all features that Canadians have been calling on wireless carriers to offer.
Initially, the Wind service will be available from North Vancouver to Richmond, Burnaby and New Westminster. Surrey, Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam will be added in the coming weeks. Campbell said Wind is also available in Whistler.
While the Wind network operates on a frequency not covered by the current iPhone, Lacavera said he expects the new iPhone coming out this year could be made compatible with the network with only a software upgrade if Apple chooses to do that. Apple’s new iPad won’t work on the Wind network.
Wind customers pay for their phones and the company currently has a limited offering, although Thursday’s audience heard that Android phones are expected in coming weeks. The company is offering customers 50 per cent off their first six months with the company, with the offer ending June 30. Customers who bring a friend to sign up get one month free.
The company’s lowest price talk plan starts at $15 a month — now $7.50 with the 50-per-cent discount. When callers are outside the Wind zone, calls are billed at 25 cents a minute across North America. Wind’s unlimited laptop data plan, requiring a USB modem, is now $27.50 a month, and regularly $55.
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