Reversed decision enables Globalive to enter Canada's cellphone market 'immediately'
By Darren Murph 
posted December 11th 2009 11:24AM
posted December 11th 2009 11:24AM
Tired of being badgered by your contemporaries over in the Northwest Angle about having to deal with those silly "three-year contracts?" Buck up, 'cause a new player has just been cleared to go head-to-head with the likes of Telus, Bell and Rogers in the Great White North. In a surprising reversal of an October CRTC ruling, the federal government in Canada has cleared Globalive to begin operations as a wireless cellphone operator in the country. The most amazing part? No changes are required in the outfit's debt structure or ownership hierarchy. You see, Canada generally requires that its wireless carriers be Canadian-owned, but as it stands, the majority shareholder in Globalive is Egypt's Orascom. Whatever the reasoning, we're just stoked to hear that the company can kick open the doors "effective immediately," and we're hoping to hear that it's doing just that in short order.[Thanks, Martin]
Update: Whoa, that was quick! Looks like WIND (the brand this will all fall under) already has a site ready to rock. No sales or anything yet, but it looks like they won't be taking this reversal of fortunes lightly. Thanks, Leon!
@08cherd4 Every province except Quebec, although it will take a little while to roll out outside of major cities.
Excellent news. Bellus/Rogers can suck it.
grobe-a-live?
Well, it's nice that the useless bastards over here will have a little more competition.
what's wrong with outside companies going in, they still employee canadian work force. Bell and rogers shareholders are all over the world, they profit from the oligopoly that has been formed. I hope Wind comes out with good plans.
I was at the http://www.MobileMondayToronto.com event where the CEO of Globalive, WIND Mobile's parent company, spoke.
In short, this is WIND's offering: http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs092.snc3/15952_650438464845_90400849_38696343_5639227_n.jpg
Today is a great day for consumers and the dawn of a new era in Canadian wireless.
Initial launch is set for Toronto, Ottawa & Calgary. The bought spectrum in every province except Quebec.
Best case scenario is they'll be launching next weekend, in time for the holiday rush. They have over 800 people hired, call centre, retail stores, etc. and then the CRTC shut them down. It's almost just flipping switches back on at this point.
Very exciting!
When can I sign up. Rogers can suck my ....Shaving Cream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6LoVvhruvs
Globalive IS Canadian-owned. They just got their funding from Egypt.
I for one welcome the competition. Maybe it'll get the smug grins off of exec's faces. The benefit of this is that Wind is just entering the Canadian market, so they'll bring with them a whole ton of ideas and new "things" that apparently the "Big 3" have yet to even fathom.
Just a few clarifications:
1. Globalive does have majority Canadian shareholders, and the board of directors of the company is entirely Canadian. The issue lies with the fact that the significant debt of the company was foreign, but the voting rights are with the shares, not with the debt, so who cares?
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2329655
2. The windmobile.ca site has been up for months.
On their site's suggestions page, I suggested, "Beat Rogers at everything they do (especially customer service)." And I damn hope they will succeed.
www.wind.it :)
Seriously engadget!!!!!!!?
lol 1st time I see you being slow... but the website is been up for a long time now! That really isnt an update.
I helped build that network. What was funny is Telus and Bell doing all that they could to prevent Globalive from building their sites. They would install new equipment in Globalive's leased areas or add on to their leasing area so Globalive couldn't build on the same place. They even had a building owner asked us to remove one area of our build because it was "in their space." Even though the site was no where near where they had their equipment. It was fun but looking at how Telus and Bell built their 3G network, those customers are going to be paying more over time for maintenance costs.
Never had those problem with Rogers though.
(Wind was built by mostly Americans. It is amazing how many Canadians don't want to work outside.)
One more year of contract and I'm bailing out of Rogers...
Seriously, everyone allows foreign-owned mobile phone companies these days. Just look a Hutchison's brand 3... it's everywhere.