The Simon Tonekham Statesman

I stumbled upon a brochure that I had picked up at a shopping mall yesterday about an unfamiliar company making its debut to compete with the other players. Koodo mobile (which in turn launched by Telus Mobility) is the new provider on targeting to mainly younger wireless customers who don’t want to subscribe to their parents’ plan and the new provider has claimed to fight off “bill bulge” and no system access fees.

Koodo offers a variety of plans starting at $25 per month plus taxes. This is the second time that Telus Mobility struggled to market a brand to cater to the younger people. Amp’d Mobile, the new service that Telus has launched in co-operation with it’s parent back in March has finally shelved after 5 months in operation. First the parent filed for bankruptcy and then the Canadian subsidiary fell victim to the wrath. This have left many people struggling on replacing their Amp’d phones with the ones that are Telus-branded. There’s no word on what happened to the Amp’d Mobile studio sessions at 355 King street in Toronto. My guess is that it has bite the dust too.

After Amp’d’s demise, Telus spent months and months trying to find out how to cater the cell phone market to the younger audience. After spending a year and a half innovating some ideas, they finally come out with a new provider: Koodo mobile. Right now, the Canadian wireless industry is dominated by three main players: Rogers (along with it’s subsidiary Fido), Telus and Bell. With the recent announcement of Industry Canada auctioning the wireless spectrum to the highest bidder, it seems that it will allow more competition and eventually it will lower phone bills in greater numbers. To see the list of bidders, you can do so right here. The announcement will take place sometime in May 2008. With number portability already in place since March 2007, it seems that people don’t need to surrender their phone number when changing providers.

By going into Koodo’s official website, I analyzed their plans (you can choose your combos ready-made or build your own), their phones (choose any phone) and add-ons you can have. The opening video from their home page reminded me of a workout show that was aired on CityTV in the 1980s. I couldn’t remember what the name of that program is……lol

The providers that we have currently:

• Rogers
• Fido
• Telus
• Bell Mobility
• Virgin Mobile
• Solo Mobile
• PC Mobile
• Petro Canada mobility
• 7-Eleven speak out
• Sasktel
• MTS
• Videotron
• Primus
• YakMobile (GlobaLive, the parent company of Yak had submitted an application to enter Canada’s wireless spectrum)

The list goes on and on and on…….Shaw is also the newcomers entering the marketplace, but as for Cogeco – it’s highly unlikely. Either way, it’s going to be a bumpy ride for the bidders trying to bid on the spectrum. To finish this blog off, I’m leaving you a music video by a band called the Used. The song is called “Buried Myself Alive”.

The Used – “Buried Myself Alive”:

References:

Koodo Mobile

http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/03/17/canada.wireless.bidders/

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/smt-gst.nsf/en/sf08900e.html

http://blogs.cisco.com/gov/2007/02/new_spectrum_auction_in_early.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080318.RKOODOTICKER18/TPStory/Business

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/calgarybusiness/story.html?id=73aa99e1-9b32-4a48-957b-938d0cba8fb6

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/cellphones/wireless-spectrum.html

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/business/080314/b0314122A.html

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpposted/archive/2008/03/18/telus-koodo-mobile-brand-launched.aspx