Wind's strategy shift points to contract plans

[SuperAman]

Looks like Wind is going the way of the big three, article i found on the Province


Since its inception, Wind Mobile has set itself apart from “The Big Guys” in Canada’s wireless market by being the bearer of unlimited to long-suffering consumers.

Executives from the startup operator have condemned the labyrinth of tiered price plans sold by incumbents Rogers, Bell and Telus that more often than not come chained to multiyear contracts, while extolling on its own unbound all-you-can-gorge plans.

According to an analyst report Wednesday, all that is about to end.

The startup is aiming to move “upstream” this fall, a note published by Canaccord Genuity says, “with an emphasis on postpaid contract plans.”

According to the note, published a day after the Toronto securities dealer had lunch with Wind management, the carrier will begin subsidizing smartphone sales. That means customers will be required to sign contracts to to pay off the device over the life of the term. Sound familiar?

Canaccord Genuity analysts say the carrier, which has attracted more than 300,000 customers as it has rolled out across the country since December 2009, may also seek to implement tiered “caps” on its unlimited mobile Internet plans — a move other carriers have taken recently amid claims of network congestion.

Wind currently sells unlimited data plans for $45 a month or a $10 add-on for voice plans, but “management acknowledged that with the explosion of wireless data usage, tiered pricing may be inevitable over time,” analyst Dvai Ghose said. [Eds note: Wind sells tiered pricing on data already but unlike incumbent operators, sells all-you-can-eat plans as well.]

The moves — if implemented — are likely aimed at taking greater share among the core customer bases of Rogers Communications Inc., BCE’s Bell Mobility and Telus Corp., which are increasingly comprised of smartphone users on tiered plans attached to term contracts meant to pay down a device subsidy. Wind would almost certainly maintain lower pricing than incumbent rates, while locking in its own postpaid base.

Wind is one of a handful of newcomers challenging the incumbent operators, which has proved more difficult than initally thought for it and others, like Mobilicity and Public Mobile, which launched last year. But armed with more financial might and legal certainty than ever, the carrier is indeed signaling intentions to step up efforts to outlast others and carve out a long-term business.

“I’m still working on the business plan to ensure we’re clearly differentiated from the other new entrants and clearly differentiated from the incumbents,” chairman Anthony Lacavera told this newspaper last month. “What we don’t want to do is go with a ‘me too’ offering.”