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.