Canada’s New Wireless Entrants

Canada now has three new telecommunications carriers offering cellular service in competition with Bell, Rogers and Telus.

Public Mobile Inc. is now offering service in Toronto and plans to expand to Montreal June 25.

 

DAVE Wireless is offering service in Toronto and Montreal under the Mobilicity brand name.

DAVE, which stands for Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises, is one of the new entrants that bought spectrum from Industry Canada in 2008.
The first new entrant out of the gate was Globalive Wireless Management Corp., which offers service under the Wind Mobile brand in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton.

Both Wind Mobile and Mobilicity offer plans starting from $15 a month and neither company has contracts.

Public Mobile has a voice plan with unlimited calling for $24 a month.

Public Mobile, Globalive and DAVE were among the new entrants who bought frequencies two years ago in the Industry Canada spectrum auction.

Another new entrant, Shaw Communications, spent $190 million on spectrum but has been tight-lipped on its service plans.

Videotron Ltd. plans to start cellular service this summer.
Globalive launched shortly after the federal Cabinet overruled an earlier ruling by the CRTC on Globalive’s foreign ownership.

Industry Minister Tony Clement is satisfied Globalive meets the Canadian ownership rules.

The CRTC nixed Globalive’s plans in October when it ruled that Globalive was effectively controlled by Orascom Telecom Holding SAE, which only holds 20 per cent of voting shares but owns non-voting shares and holds most of Globalive’s debt.