Shaw Communications purchased Wind Mobile for $1.6 billion (CAD) back in March 2016. At the time, the carrier gathered 940,000 wireless subscribers across Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta.
Following the acquisition, Alek Krstajic, Wind Mobile’s EVP and president, stated, “with Shaw’s long-term commitment, customer focus and breadth of product offering, we are better positioned to deliver better value and capability to WIND customers. The strength of Shaw as a company and as a brand will provide Canadians with more choice and opportunities to stay connected.”
Today, Krstajic is no longer with the company and the Wind Mobile brand has pivoted and is now known as Freedom Mobile.
However, there could very well be a new wind blowing for Shaw’s telecom business. According to new trademark filing found by MobileSyrup, Shaw has registered “Shaw Mobile,” “Shaw Mobility,” and “Shaw Wireless” with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO).
All three trademarks were filed on September 12th, 2017 and formalized on September 14th, 2017. As expected, the descriptions all point to offering wireless services.
There could be a couple of different scenarios on the horizon.
There is a possibility that Shaw is done with the Freedom Mobile brand and Freddy the Freedom Bear. Shaw could completely scrap the brand and simply rebrand the business to fall under the Shaw banner, which would follow all of its other products.
Another option would be for the company to unveil a higher-end option for customers and have Freedom Mobile be its sub-brand, like Bell does with Virgin, Telus with Koodo Mobile and Public Mobile, and Rogers with Fido and Chatr.
Freedom Mobile would be its value play and Shaw Wireless/Shaw Mobility/Shaw Mobile would be the top tier carrier with additional options for customers, such as bundling other products and services that it offers.
Shaw’s latest quarterly earnings report revealed Freedom Mobile’s subscriber base topped 1,106,000.
Source: CIPO
