There’s been a lot of talk of the large telco giant Verizon out of the states picking up Wind Mobile and possibly Mobilicity in Canada and competing against the ‘Big Three’ which the forums refer to as Robelus, since they’re essentially all the same company.
Their biggest fear is that a giant US company picking up one of the new smaller cellular companies, because they were given a competitive edge on the technological front, would cripple them in Canada. I think they’re just doing a lot of whining.
Firstly there’s a huge build required to make Wind or Moblicity’s network as pervasive in Canada as the big three and until that happens, if Verizon wants to offer a competitive product, they’ll need to rely on the big three’s networks. For example, if you have Wind mobile right now and you’re not in a major urban centre, then you’ll go onto “Wind Away” zone which is Rogers’ network and you’re paying through the roof for service which is included in your normal plan when you’re at home. If you never leave the city that’s fine, but I’m certain many people, like my self, cross in and out of Wind zones daily so unless Verizon makes that seamless and fully included in my plan, I wouldn’t switch.
They also mentioned a North America-wide plan being a problem for them. Here’s an idea, why don’t they offer one too? Strike up some better deals with your American partners and get those per-minute and per megabyte roaming rates down. Rogers’ $8 for 50MB in the US is ยข16/MB. Your average data plan is closer to half a cent per MB.
Competition in the Canadian cellular market is a big deal and I’d rather see Verizon playing against the incumbents than watch Wind and Moblicity dry up.
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