There has been a great deal of hype behind WIND Mobile, formally Globalive Wirless. They are the most visable new entrants into the Canadian wireless scene.
They continue to reach out and write stories about various wireless topics, the connect with Canadians and have even started putting recruitment ads in papers to get prepared for their upcoming launch. As always they are up front and honest about what they’re up to… this is how they’re gaining trust with us Canadians.
Chris Robbins, CCO (Chief Commercial Officer) of WIND has written a post on the company blog titled “Answering Questions” where in fact he does answer a number of questions potential customers have been wondering about. He starts off by stating that “We will not have the iPhone at launch….the spectrum that was auctioned (“AWS”) is at a different frequency from most of the phones currently in the market, including the iPhone. It will take a while before the iPhone works on the AWS frequency (Apple needs to decide to do it).”
So that’s an insight into what they won’t be launching with… but the iPhone was never listed on that so called “leaked list of devices”. Even though Tony Lacavera, Chairman of Globalive Holdings, stated back in the middle of May that the leaked line up and possible price plans were “not our document“. One can keep dreaming of that list and hope at least some of them make it at launch.
Chris goes on to write about unlocked devices: “Same answer for people’s currently unlocked phones. While there are some AWS frequency handsets out there (T-Mobile’s US 3G phones are AWS for example) and handset manufacturers are adding that frequency to their chipsets and handsets, it’s unlikely any currently “unlocked” phones will work on AWS at launch.”
We have always known that that the launch date is targeted to happen before the end of the year, now set for Calgary and Toronto first, then a rollout in other cities across Canada during 2010. With this said, Globalive is getting ready for the CRTC investigation into their foreign ownership on September 23rd & 24th. We believe everything will work out as planned and us Canadians will have another choice for wireless.
More here at Wind Mobile
