Bill-McMinn.com How Do Canada's New Cell Carriers Stack Up?

tech help

How Do Canada's New Cell Carriers Stack Up?

For many looking to the new competition entering Canada's cellular phone industry to provide lower prices and better technology but don't know which carrier will provide the service they want for price that is better than the incumbents. Here's the rundown on new cell carriers and what they have to offer.

	Wind Mobile	Mobilicity	Public Mobile	Videotron	Shaw Communications
Current service coverage	Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver	Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmomton	Toronto	TBD	None Yet (to be launched in 2011)
Future service coverage	TBD	Calgary,	Windsor to Quebec City within 2 years	Montreal through Quebec City	TBD
Technology	UMTS – AWS	UMTS – AWS	CDMA	TBD	LTE?
Out of Network Roaming	Yes (Rogers)	Yes (Rogers)	No	TBD	TBD
Number Portability	Yes	TBD	Yes	TBD	TBD
Pre-Paid Service	Yes	TBD	No	TBD	TBD
Use your own unlocked Phone	Yes -AWS compatible models only	Yes – AWS compatible models only	No	TBD	TBD

Current and Future Service Coverage- For the new cell carriers building and launching their networks has started in Canada's largest cities simply because that's how they can attract the most subscribers right from launch. Wind Mobile launched in Toronto and then expanded to Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa and most recently Vancouver. Mobilicity will take a similar approach to expanding their network. Expect Wind Mobile to add Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon with further coverage in southern Ontario to be added in 2011. Atlantic Canada expected to be added in 2012. Mobilicity's further expansion will follow that of Wind Mobile. Public Mobile is only licensed for Southern Ontario and Quebec

Technology- Wind Mobile and Mobilicity have already launched using UMTS-HSPA networks, the descendant of GSM. Videotron is expected to use UMTS-HSPA as well. Public Mobile is using CDMA. Shaw Communications is expected to use fourth generation Long Term Evolution LTE technology for their cellular network.

Out of Network Roaming- Since the networks of the new carriers are only available within the cities that they currently offer service. Roaming on another carrier's network is required in order to provide service in areas where the incoming cell carriers have not yet built any infrastructure. Subscribers to Wind Mobile and Mobilicity will roam on the Rogers wireless network. Public Mobile subscribers do not have access to out of network roaming since Public Mobile's phones and network use CDMA but use a different frequency band than incumbent CDMA networks. Shaw on the other hand will be the wireless network that other cellular carriers will be looking make roaming agreements with. Since Rogers is the only cell carrier to express any intention to upgrade to LTE they will be concentrating on building LTE in Ontario and Atlantic Canada and roam on Shaw in the West.

Number portability- Taking phone numbers from one telephone service provider to another has broken down one of the barriers to consumers looking to make a switch. While Wind Mobile couldn't accommodate number porting when they first started offering service, that has since changed and will let people bring their phone numbers to their service. Public Mobile supports porting numbers but Mobilicity however makes no mention about number porting.

Pre-Paid Service- Unlike the incumbent cellular carriers that sell a certain number of airtime minutes and outgoing text messages on pre-paid service, Pre-paid service with the new cell carriers will work differently: On Wind Mobile a pre-paid customer chooses a plan just like post-paid customers do but instead of a bill at the end of the month, pre-paid customers top up their accounts with the amount of money equivalent to the price of the plan they have chooses before the service is provided by Wind Mobile. Public Mobile has a different approach to pre-paid service, they don't provide it. Public Mobile targets the majority of pre-paid market, the value conscious consumer who has felt that the cost of monthly plans is too high by providing plans that are the lowest priced in the Canadian cellular market. Public Mobile is also going after the other kind of customer that usually buys pre-paid service: Those with no credit history and having trouble establishing credit who have been unable to subscribe to post-paid cellular service because they have been unable to pass the credit check. Instead Public Mobile will provide post-paid service to anybody without a credit check. Mobilicity has nothing listed about any kind of pre-paid service.

Use Your Own Unlocked Phone- For those cell phone junkies who buy their own unlocked phones to get phones with features not available on any other phones provided by cell carriers have had just one choice: Rogers/Fido. After Bell and Telus made their change to UMTS/HSPA subscribers those carriers could choose a phone not sold by their carrier. With the first two of the new cell phone carriers: Wind Mobile and Mobilicity can use an unlocked phone on their networks but their choices are limited to UMTS phones that advanced wireless spectrum (AWS). While an unlocked iPhone cannot be used on Wind Mobile or Mobilicity, there is a version of Google's Nexus One that is compatible with those networks. Which is good news since neither Wind Mobile or Mobilicity currently offer any Android based smartphones. Public Mobile using a special frequency band as well as running a CDMA network cannot activate phones not sold by Public Mobile.

Custom Search