This document is by far the most intriguing internal doc that I’ve received in a very long time. Public Mobile, a “new” entrant” in Canadian wireless, invested $52 million during the 2008 wireless auction and gained coverage between from Windsor to Quebec City. Public is a private company and has a $350 million financing deal with ZTE Corporation and the Export-Import Bank of China, plus backed by OMERS with a $50 million investment – because they are private they’re not obliged to release or announce their subscriber numbers, something analysts and competitors are desperately seeking.
Well, this internal document from Alek Krstajic, CEO of Public Mobile, states that Q3 subscriber numbers have reached “more than 150k customers, with September being the best month for growth in the history of Public Mobile”. That alone is remarkable and very surprising – Public currently offers prepaid service in Toronto and Montreal. The doc continues to state that Q3 2011 saw a 40k jump in subs and was “50% higher than the combined prepaid growth of all 3 Incumbents (at 27k)”.
Public noted that their success has come by focusing in on the “value conscious Canadian consumers”, while the incumbents “focused on postpaid contracts and high-end smartphones rather than trying to compete head-to-head with us in a segment where we have a cost advantage”. In addition, Krstajic also wrote that they have the “best cost structure in the industry and are designed from the ground up to serve these customers profitably” because their ARPU (Average Rate Per User) is close to WIND’s, which was earlier reported to be around $29/month.
Finally, there seems to be expansion plans in the works and some confirmation to an earlier report of Android devices coming to their lineup. At the bottom of the doc is reads their ARPU “will grow as we add 3G services and Android smartphones in Q4”. The Android devices are expected to come in under $200.
Over 150,000 subs in 2 cities is an impressive number. To compare to the other new entrants, WIND Mobile has about 400,000 and no insight into Mobilicity as they are a private company.
Thoughts?
(Thanks tipster!)
Update: We were asked by Public Mobile to kindly remove the document, which only confirms its truth.
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