Search Google for “Wind Mobilicity” and the second result in the auto-suggestion is “Wind Mobilicity merger.” A lot of people seem to believe that it is only a matter of time before Mobilicity is scooped up by WIND, after TELUS’s attempt was scuttled by Industry Canada in mid-2013.
After a very successful venture to acquire Mobilicity customers in December by offering a $60 credit, WIND has gone all-in for the next week, offering Mobi customers six months of free service and a free SIM card.
The service offering is WIND’s standard $35 plan, which includes unlimited province-wide talk, Canada-wide text and in-market data, with a total value of $210. The deal is for Pay Before and Pay After, and Mobilicity customers must port their number to WIND. While there are a few stipulations (PDF), it is a great deal.
Mobilicity is currently in creditor protection, and has a mountain of debt to pay back.
@MobileSyrup Wind might be predatory, hurting Mobi to push it into Liquidation, at which point assets (customers, spectrum) are cheap.
— Jean-François Mezei (@jfmezei) January 15, 2015
Wireless industry analyst, Jean-François Mezei, made a good point on Twitter that WIND may be attempting to push Mobilicity into bankruptcy, forcing them to liquidate their assets and therefore making it easier to buy the company’s remaining parts — the spectrum and subscribers — without being saddled with the debt.
With the AWS-3 auction less than two months away, WIND must be looking to ensure it can scoop up as much spectrum as possible, both as leverage for a possible deal with Quebecor’s Videotron, and as backhaul for the inevitable bandwidth crunch that will happen when it finally turns on LTE sometime next year.
Time will tell, but for now, if you’re a Mobilicity customer there is really no reason not to switch to WIND. The promotion expires on January 26th, four days before the end of Mobilicity’s current span of court-approved creditor protection.
[source]WIND Mobile[/source]
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