How WIND Mobile changed Canada in less than 24 hours

By on Dec 16, 2009 at 1:10 PM
Featured December 16, 2009

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For our non-Canadian readers, it might be pretty hard to understand why there’s been so much hype about WIND Mobile finally launching. It is just a cell phone carrier after all, right? Kind of. It is a business at the end of the day, and a business hopes to be profitable (they want to make as much money possible), but the reason WIND is so brilliant is because they’re capitalizing on years of pillaging by Canada’s big three mobile providers: Rogers, TELUS and Bell. We’re not going to get into why Canada’s cellular options are so bad and expensive — Canada is a huge country, 90% of the people live within a certain amount of miles to the U.S. border, people expect coverage everywhere, it’s expensive to maintain — because it doesn’t matter. What does matter is how revolutionary WIND is to the average Canadian cellular subscriber and how much money that person will save. Here’s an example of a standard Rogers phone bill for a BlackBerry:

  • $45/month for 400 minutes, unlimited calling after 9PM, and a choice of either unlimited Rogers-to-Rogers calling, my5, unlimited SMS, or an extra $100 minutes. Let’s assume you chose unlimited Rogers-to-Rogers calling.
  • $25/month for a 500MB data plan for your BlackBerry (BIS not BES)
  • $20/mo for unlimited SMS, caller ID and voicemail for a smartphone
  • Total with fees of around $93/month (excluding taxes).

Over the life of your cell phone contract of three years (yes, it’s three years in Canada), you’ll have paid approximately $3348 to Rogers, and you’d have a brand new BlackBerry 9700 for which you paid $249.99 for. All in all, $3597 before tax. Here’s a WIND plan:

  • $45/month for unlimited minutes, unlimited SMS to U.S. and Canada, voicemail, caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding
  • $35/month for unlimited BlackBerry data

We’re at $80/month with unlimited everything, no contract, and no fees to change plans or features.

Sure, a difference of only plus or minus $13/month might not get everyone excited, but think of it this way… you don’t have to pay $500 to cancel your contract, you can elect to pre or post-pay, and never have to ever worry about overages unless you’ve got a lot of pals overseas. The option of unlimited anything is a downright comforting thought for consumers. As long as you can get over the $200 additional entry fee for an unsubsidized but very fairly-priced handset (note: Rogers charges $599.99 for a contract-free Bold 9700 as opposed to WIND’s $450), WIND looks incredibly attractive. Plus, you won’t get tied to the tree and spanked. Metaphorically, of course.

It isn’t all rainbows and ponies, however, as we have to take coverage (when you roam on Rogers, for instance, you’ll only get EDGE as WIND uses the same AWS 3G spectrum T-Mobile uses and is incompatible with Rogers, TELUS, and Bell), customer service, and profitability into consideration. The bet is that WIND makes so much that they can continue to save you money. Funny, isn’t it? Again, they’re a brand, brand new network, but with a boatload of cash behind them, some very smart and attractive pricing, plans, devices, and services, we think they have an amazing shot. They’ve also permanently disrupted the Canadian wireless landscape for the better, and within days or weeks, you’ll start to see better pricing from red, green, and blue. Thus giving our Canadian friends something they’ve long hoped for — competition.

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  • LD

    Anyone know why WIND will stay out of Quebec??

    • slow mo

      They lost the AWS auction bid to Quebecor’s Videotron unit( Videotron bid too high to eliminate any new competitors in Quebec which is sad). They will announce a roaming agreement with them when they launch in 2010.

  • Peter

    Unhunh…

    And the call will drop as you move in and out of the Wind footprint…
    And your unlimited data plan is only within the limited Wind footprint….
    And you still have to pony up $450 up front…
    And there is no handset upgrade program…that you use just like everyone else…
    Would you care if your 3G phone only works in the city? the rest of the time its EDGE?
    Is all this worth $15 a month? It take 15 month of monthly savings to pay for the difference in the handset, and there still isn’t an upgrade program for the customer….

    My guess is that lots of people will look at this and go “Hmm” but few will join in.

    Also, their “boatload of cash” is being loaned to them at 18% interest by Orascom, which is reflective of the risk in WINDs business model. They haven’t even begun to spend money yet. The expensive part of this business is the Brand building, and the marketing, and the sales channels, and the compensation. They have 8 stores where Rogers have 9,000.

    So, when they go broke, your $450 blackberry is a $450 paperweight.

    Let the starvation contest begin….

    • Rototrack

      You won’t be able to just take the Blackberry over to, say, Rogers?

    • Crystal Chalmers

      Umm… or you can unlock it and take it somewhere else… unlocking only costs about 10 bucks.

      • Jesus

        The phones uses a different band then Rogers. Sure it will work, but only 2G which defeats the point of the phone.

      • Anonymous

        Actually, the Blackberry phone they are offering is 3G compatible. I looked at it in their website.

      • Anon

        Diff 3G band that is used in Canada, so it won’t work on anything but WIND for 3G. Or T-Mobile. You just have to move to the US. LOLMOBILE. Cheaper? Yes. Shittier? Yeppp

  • Someguy

    “Sure, a difference of only plus or minus $13/month might not get everyone excited, but think of it this way” Seriously!?!? The roger’s plan unlimited calls start at 9pm and doesn’t have unlimited data…you aren’t even comparing apples to apples.

  • FRAZAH

    Unlimited is great but thats only within the Wind footprint which is Toronto and Calgary, any usage outside of those 2 cities is billed per min/text/kb.

  • Eric

    Sure you save $13 a month IF YOU STAY in the HOME ZONE, once you leave the zone it is 25 cents/min. That means you can talk for an additional 52 mins over the course of a month before the costs exceed the other carriers. The Home Zone doesn’t cover all of the GTA, if you live or just travel into Woodbridge you are not covered, if you live north of Major Mac then you are out of luck. I am curious to see what an actual month of a person that travels around the city is.

  • Chelsea

    Maybe you should research a little more. On Rogers, there is a $50 plan that gets you voice and data. And you get a free Blackberry instead of paying $500 for one. Wind is only useful if you live in the footprint and only talk to other people who have WInd.

  • Doug

    Im betting wind does very well with metro users i cant wait for them to hit Vancouver, there US roam rate deal with Tmobile is going to be great if nothing else a shake up of the big 3 idiots is badly needed

  • iFloss

    Sounds like a Canadian metro pcs. Except for the fact that we have so much freedom in choosing plans and coverage that metro pcs wasn’t even that much of a disruption.
    It caused a commotion when it hit new york but it didn’t do half of what WIND is doing because their phones suck, and their network sucks from what i’ve been told.

    Lets go WIND

  • Jennie

    seeing from a student’s POV though
    i’m excited to be able to get province-wide calling & unlimited incomng
    true i can get fav 5 stuff from bell/rogers/telus
    but wind plan 35 is practically like fav 99+++
    not to mention there is no 6.95 emergency fee
    and 7 for caller ID (biggest rip-off by the cdn cell phone traid imo)

  • James bond

    wind mobile is great except their current phone selection..

    here is a list of wind mobile compatible phones..

    http://unlockingabc.blogspot.com/2010/01/wind-mobile-compatible-phones.html

  • Jaybomb

    Plan and Simple Wind is going to blow ( ha ha like my pun ) When you pretty much got to rely on another company for your reception.. its not going to help you. Sure there’s no contract.. they probably have some gay shit like Koodo does a “tab”

    who ever did the pricing obviously did it the most expensive way, for example on bell

    Smartphone Combo 50 = $50

    100+100 bonus min = 200min
    free after 9pm and your weekends
    500MB of Data ( good for almost everyone unless you plan on lots of video streaming 24/7)

    choice of Nationwide Fab 5 ( fave 5 for you Rogers people)

    Double your Minutes

    Unlimited Text

    5pm Evening

    and if you Chose lets say fab 5

    and wanted that expensive pack of $20 that gives you Caller ID thats $7 that apparently a rip off according to Jennie, Voice Mail and Unlimited Text… that puts you at a total of $70

    hell lets do it up to 400 Min with 1GB of data with all the rest the Same and you at $85

    The Bell CDMA was faster than Rogers GSM. and big deal your GSM was global.. who cares if you dont travel out of the continent. thats the Same Crap Wind will have… and they will only have Toronto and Calgary… the rest is roaming on Rogers, and not everything will work when your in the “away zones”

    Now with Telus and Bell fully Jumping ship to HSPA, Stronger and Faster than GSM, and not only covering major areas like Rogers ( anyone else see that comercial? ” my network, your network ” ) they are going to Cover 93% of Canada Population

    THERES NO ACCESS FEES on Bell or Telus, ( Pay attention Jennie ) Rogers made up anothers fee to get there customers.

    Im not being Bias here, but I say Bell all the way…Who put up the majority of the cell towers in Canada??? and for all you Haters. Anyone can be “screwed” by any service provider just you cant get your own way.

    Ive had cell phones with the other providers and worked and have friends, and some family work for the all of the providers. its my personal preference… its not for everyone… and certain providers have better reception than others in different area’s ( mostly a Bell or Rogers since Telus mostly piggy backs off of Bell, if not bell has full rights to there towers)

    Thats my rant for now, Thanks for Listening/ Reading, or not

    • Anon

      Oh my god. The level of ignorance in that post is mind-blowing.

      “Now with Telus and Bell fully Jumping ship to HSPA, Stronger and Faster than GSM, and not only covering major areas like Rogers”

      Hey fanboy, you realize that HSPA is GSM right? LOL. Yeah, they’re switching to GSM cause they realized they can’t headbutt the wall anymore with their archaic CDMA bullcrap. Sim cards are SO MUCH BETTER than having to program your phone manually.

      Also, you just outright lied (or shown your complete ignorance) when you said they’re expanding coverage. Because, as you seem to ignore, they’re HSPA phones are not backwards compatible with CDMA. Yep, if you’re out of the 3G footprint, your phone doesn’t fall back on Bell’s EVDO as the Rogers’ do with their backwards compatibility between 3G and EDGE.

      Plus, having worked for Bell, their service is fucking trash. The company’s policies would make Hitler proud.

  • Many

    Hahaha jaybomb,
    I have a 32$ a month plan which includes 200minutes, free after six, and the great rogers network that has coverage anywhere!
    After all is said and done i end up paying 100$ every month.
    32$ for contract
    6.99$ for system access
    5$ for caller id
    5$ for Voice Mail
    20$ for unlimited SMS
    so that equals= 69$
    Plus i talk like crazy and go over my minutes to make up for the average 100$ a month bill.
    I want an Iphone, i will use it online allot, i can only imagine how much i would end up paying if going over their POS 1gb plan.
    I will go to wind as soon as i can,
    Fuck the big three, they had soo much time to make it right, yet they are greedy and they didn’t. In europe and america plans like these are standard! Even if i end up paying more a month, i will go to wind out of principle!

  • http://Whatsthatsoon? Mike gagnon

    Looks like the competer-ision is gonna try n break WIND,were gettin there mrultimate discoverer TESLA! yea! Now we just need REAL
    CHANGE NOT MORE BS AS PER AND WARDENCLIFF THE WORLD, or yhwy or…..
    Try true spiritual transen-dental LOVE, yeah. Ok
    good luck everyone this is gettin real old this evil
    crap. Amon.

  • jonno

    Canada can’t really have T-Mobile technically speaking, and if the CRTC had not been overridden, we wouldn’t have gotten Wind Mobile either. Long story short, if a foreign company owns or has invested upwards of 20% of a company’s value within Canada, they cannot operate within Canada… or something along that line. So… yeah, no T-Mobile. Wind is about as close as we’ll get up here… though maybe DAVE Wireless or Public Mobile might get even closer.

  • Safi

    Why do people who call themselves LaToya online sass people they haven’t met?

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