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Fongo makes a very public bid for control of Wind Mobile
Canadian carrier Wind Mobile has faced no small amount of tumult in recent months, culminating in direct control by Orascom and talk of shopping the provider around to the highest bidder. We didn't entirely anticipate just who would take up the offer, however: Fongo, best known for its former Dell Voice initiative, has made an overt bid for Wind. The VoIP provider wants to extend Wind's network network across the country while moving subscribers over to Fongo within the space of a year, theoretically creating a perfect match between cheap cellular access and free internet calling. Before anyone pops champagne corks, we'd warn that there's heavy amounts of publicity and symbolism involved in the acquisition attempt. Fongo is offering $1 and a 49 percent stake in its own venture -- that draws attention to its service, but might not hold up in a fierce bidding war. There may be more involved, but we'll have to wait before we know just how serious the move could be. Wind's parent Globalive has declined comment, while Fongo tells us it's waiting on a formal response before putting more of its cards on the table.
Wind Mobile to lose CEO, come under Egyptian telco's wing
We're only a few days into 2013, but that's not stopping Canada's Wind Mobile -- the Great White North's fourth largest carrier -- from announcing big changes for the year ahead. The firm just struck a deal with Egypt's Orascom that'll see the foreign telco gain control of the company through a stock deal and have Wind's founder and CEO, Anthony Lacavera, step down from his post. Barring hiccups in regulatory smell tests, the pact is expected to be rubber-stamped by the end of the year. As for Lacavera, he'll stay onboard as honorary chair and will spearhead a new effort dubbed Globalive Capital to invest in budding technology, telecom and media companies.
WIND Mobile: there can be only one (and we're it)
It seems unlikely that Canada -- a country with a population a little over one-tenth of the US' -- could realistically support six national carriers over the long term, and WIND Mobile's parent company agrees. Speaking with an Ottawa newspaper, Globalive's chairman didn't pull any punches, saying that "there is room for only one more national operator in [his] opinion" and that he intends to be that operator, acquiring others along the way if need be. WIND is going up against fellow newcomers Mobilicity and Public Mobile in a bid to compete against the big trio of Rogers, Bell, and Telus, and it stands to reason that a merger or joint venture would probably help the little guys in their quest. Four is enough -- isn't it?
Mobilicity gets the green light from CRTC, looks to launch in Toronto soon
Right on cue, the artist formerly known as DAVE Wireless has been given approval to begin operations in Canada. Just as we heard earlier in the year, Mobilicity is looking to add some much-needed competition in the mobile operator space up north, and as predicted, the CRTC has given the initial stamp of approval needed for it to move forward with business operations. The company has to make a few minor changes up the ladder in order to appease the Canadian overlords that regulate this stuff, but the outfit's top brass have stated that they have "no issues" whatsoever in complying. If all goes well, the carrier plans to start up service in Toronto before the summer swings in, with Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa to get covered later in the year. Here's hoping those blasted three-year contracts vanish for good, eh? [Thanks, Adam]
WIND Mobile launches in Canada, T-Mobile gets a spectrum buddy
Despite some last-minute drama with the government, Canada's WIND Mobile has launched today, bringing to the table an interesting new low-cost competitor to the nation's giant incumbents, Rogers, Bell, and Telus. Though its network -- based on last year's AWS auction -- lacks the footprint of the bigger guys, the pricing is pretty compelling: its $15 voice plan offers twice the minutes of low-cost competitors Koodo and Fido (which are really just fronts for Telus and Rogers, anyway) and CAD $35 (about $33) wins you unlimited data on your BlackBerry. Speaking of BlackBerrys, WIND is rolling out the Bold 9700 as one of its launch devices alongside the HTC Maple (known as the Dash 3G in the States), the Samsung Gravity, the Huawei U519, and the E181 USB modem. Service is only live in Toronto and Calgary at the moment, but the limited distribution doesn't seem to be holding people back -- WIND's site has been up and down all morning. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Reversed decision enables Globalive to enter Canada's cellphone market 'immediately'
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!
CRTC blocks Canada's WIND from launching over ownership concerns
Globalive, which has recently been ramping up to launch a national Canadian phone service under the WIND brand using spectrum won in last year's auction, has been dealt a hell of a blow by the CRTC this week. The organization -- essentially the northern equivalent of the FCC -- has strict rules demanding that Canadian wireless networks be Canadian-owned, and an investigation of WIND's structure has apparently raised enough concern to cause it to call off the service's launch. Egypt's Orascom Telecom (which, strangely, also runs North Korea's Koryolink) owns some 65.1 percent of the operation and apparently "holds the overwhelming majority of the outstanding debt" for which Globalive is responsible, so yeah, we can see how that might not qualify as "Canadian-owned." For its part, Globalive says that it's "extremely disappointed" in the decision and "will be evaluating [its] options on how to proceed," but in all likelihood, that's going to have to mean cashing out a good chunk of Orascom if it's serious about making this happen. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Read - CRTC decision Read - WIND response
