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?

[koolin Posted Jun 10th 2010 3:29PM]

not when 3 of the 4 are really just the same thing with a different name.

[ChechenTDG Posted Jun 10th 2010 3:34PM]

I hate the prices and phones here in Canada. I'm fed up with it. Is it hard to get good phones and good prices. All the carriers offer the same thing, it really doesn't matter which carrier your on. I need an Evo

[lerxst Posted Jun 10th 2010 3:44PM]

@ChechenTDG Good phones are readily available; fair prices are not.

[ChechenTDG Posted Jun 10th 2010 4:03PM]

@lerxst
What good phones? The only decent phones Ive seen are the Milestone and the Xperia X10, which aren't what Im looking for. I want a superphone, like the Evo. Which I'm planning to get and unlock to use here.

[niftydl Posted Jun 10th 2010 4:03PM]

@ChechenTDG Buy unlocked?

[ChechenTDG Posted Jun 10th 2010 4:12PM]

@niftydl
Really, where?

[koolin Posted Jun 10th 2010 4:18PM]

@ChechenTDG the Evo is CDMA you cant "unlock" it, you can try ESN swap but good luck with that.

[ChechenTDG Posted Jun 10th 2010 4:26PM]

@koolin
I'll get someone else to do it. Hopefully Virgin mobile will accept. Or maybe even PC mobile, really I don't care as long as I have the phone.

[Ezye1313 Posted Jun 11th 2010 6:58AM]

You might "have" the phone but good luck ever getijg to use it.

[Noxi79 Posted Jun 10th 2010 5:16PM]

Denmark with a population of 6million has 4 major carriers and 30+ smaller ones. Just because US has so few (and so costly ones), does not equate to the rest of the world :)

[lynchenstein Posted Jun 10th 2010 7:58PM]

@Noxi79
Yes, but Denmark's area is only 43 thousand square kilometers while Canada is over 9 million square kilometers. I would imagine that the cost of putting cell towers all over Denmark is far cheaper than Canada. Thus, harder to make ends meet in Canada.
(not to say that all 9 000 000 km are inhabited, but still...)

[Valicore Posted Jun 11th 2010 7:32PM]

@Noxi79 Great comment, except that Canada isn't part of the US, and that Denmark is tiny with a concentrated urban population and a population smaller than that of New York City and equal to that of the Greater Toronto Area. Apples and Oranges comparison.

[KC Posted Jun 10th 2010 11:59PM]

Denmark is 43094 square kilometers

All of Europe - 9,940,000 square kilometers

Canada is 9 984 670 square kilometers

That's the problem with Canada, people are spread out and the country is enormous. See the problem? Canada can't support as many national carriers with it's population because the country is HUGE and the cost to build a network here is equally HUGE so any entrant needs to have enough customers to cover the enormous start up costs.

[Valicore Posted Jun 11th 2010 7:34PM]

@KC It also must be mentioned that the Canadian Telecommunications Authority is a really kind of oppressive anti-consumer entity that seems to have a private interest in reducing competition.

[Valicore Posted Jun 11th 2010 7:35PM]

Oh, and can anyone tell me WHY Public Mobile is building a CDMA network as opposed to starting with HSDPA or even LTE?