WIND Mobile has been stirring up quite a fuss in the wireless market for Canada as of late. From their initial announcement of spending $442 Million in the wireless spectrum (1700mHz) auction to the most recent troubles they have had with the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission WIND Mobile and their parent company Globalive Wireless Management Corp. has customers excited.
After having the federal government overrule the CRTC, WIND Mobile is getting the last little bits in place for their launch, which is rumored to be today (we'll see if that pans out). Store locations have been set up and they have a recently announced deal with BlockBuster to sell service through in-store kiosks. Rate plans are still not fully available (although, previously leaked) but devices are ready to roll out, including what we all care about... BlackBerry smartphones. Heading up the pack in that area will be the BlackBerry Bold 9700. When it comes to device pricing, we already know WIND will be offering no contracts but that comes at the cost of higher then what were are used to paying for equipment. Sure, they will be discounted a little but it'll be similar to buying a device off contract from any of the big three carriers.
WIND Mobile will be available in Calgary and Toronto first going off and has their own 3G network but makes use of Rogers EDGE services for a "fallback" option. Something Bell and TELUS cannot do which does give WIND a slight advantage when it launches, which is rumored to be tomorrow. WIND of course will be expanding to other areas but one sour point at this time is Quebec. Currently, no service is being offered in Quebec due to fact WIND was beat out on spectrum pricing there. A partner would be needed to reach that area, which will at some point hopefully change. Exciting times for the Canadian wireless market as we welcome a new carrier and hopefully some great changes ahead for consumers.