TELUS, Canada’s third largest wireless carrier, has asked the Supreme Court of British Columbia to step in and immediately stop Mobilicity from running their latest ad (TV, radio, print, online). The ad in question apparently takes direct aim at their competitors unlimited offerings, not specifically noting TELUS, and that “what you see isn’t always what you get.” TELUS says this is against the Competition Act and is “false and misleading,” plus damaging to their brand.
According to the court filing (December 7th), TELUS notes that “December is near the end of the fiscal year for many wireless service providers, including Telus, meaning that year-end filings and share value are affected by performance during this time. Accordingly, advertising related to wireless communication services is extremely important during December for the wireless telecommunications industry in Canada.”
In response to this news, Stewart Lyons, Mobilicity President and CEO, said “Telus is trying to get us to pull our ads. They are trying to intimidate us. They are using high-priced lawyers to compete when they don’t feel like competing out on the street.”
Mobilicity is offering an unlimited talk, text and data (throttled and watched under a fair use policy) on sale now for $27.50/month. If you want to have premium data it’ll cost you an extra $20/month and allows for the “fastest data speeds.” TELUS, similar to Bell and Rogers, released a plan that included unlimited talk, text and 5GB data, Caller ID, VM, Call Waiting & Conference Calling, plus they also axed the activation fee (price is $100/month).
TELUS currently has over 7.5 million wireless customers (Q3 2012 numbers). As for Mobilicity, they are a private company and have not made their subscriber numbers known.
Source: Globe
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