In the past five months, three new Canadian wireless carriers came out of nowhere. Two others have are the offspring of already existing carriers. Some are concerned that all this new competition will instigate a price war. Wind, one of the new carriers, claims that they will not be starting it.
Aldo Mareuse, CFO of Orascom Telecom (the parent company behind Wind’s equity, and is similarly involved in the carrier companies of nine countries), claims, ” We are not going into a price war. There is no clear intention to reduce our prices any time soon.” Reading between the lines means that if the competition wages a war for the lowest price, they will join in but they are not planning to fire the first round.
Wind is a new brand, but there were 100,000 customers after just the first seven months. Wind has a number of appealing plans ranging from $15-35 CAD. They also have some good data options (eg. $17.50 CAD for unlimited internet).
Even though they are not planning to lower their prices, they do interesting discounts and sales. For example, if you transfer from one of the older carriers, you get a $150 CAD credit. There is also 50% off data plans if you contract them for a year. It is unclear how many of that subscriber base was lured in because of promotions, but the CEO of Wind Mobile, Ken Campbell, stated that they have been “quite attractive.” He also mentioned that a large portion of the subscriber base had chosen Wind for their first cellphone.
If you are in the market for a new cellphone/service in Canada, you have lots of new options. Just know that Wind is not planning on lowering their prices unless others do.