Mobilicity

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Mobilicity

Type	Private
Industry	Wireless Services
Founded	Vaughan, Ontario (2009)
Headquarters	Vaughan, Ontario
Key people	Stewart Lyons - President and CEO[1] John Bitove - Founder and Executive Chairman
Products	BlackBerry Smartphones, Wireless Data Services, SMS, MMS, HSPA
Website	www.mobilicity.ca

Mobilicity (formerly Data & Audio Visual Enterprises Wireless or DAVE Wireless) is a Canadian wireless telecommunications provider. Its name is a portmanteau of the words "mobility" and "simplicity".^[2]

History

Originally formed as DAVE Wireless by Canadian businessman John Bitove, the company entered the 2008 spectrum auction for AWS frequencies. DAVE spent $243 million on 10 Mhz of AWS spectrum blocks largely covering southern and eastern Ontario, Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.^[3].

As Mobilicity, the company began offering service to the public on 15 May 2010. At the time of launch only the city of Toronto had coverage. On November 17th, 2010, service was launched in Edmonton and Vancouver,^[4][5] and on November 18th, 2010, the company launched their service in the Ottawa and Gatineau area.^[6] Coverage in Calgary went live on 28th April 2011.^[7] The company currently has no spectrum access within the province of Quebec.^[8]

The company is now facing close competition from already established Rogers Communications via their new brand called "Chatr" which offers similar services at much the same price points. Rogers' move has already sparked responses from Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility, two other major Canadian carriers, who have also launched similar services with their brands. Bell updated its Virgin Mobile Canada and Solo Mobile brands to include City plans, while Telus has done likewise with its Koodo Mobile and Clearnet brands.^[9] Mobilicity contends that the plan is aimed directly at their service, which is based on the same cell towers.^[10]

Network

Mobilicity's network was built in 2009 and currently maintained by Ericsson^[11]. The company also has a cell-site sharing agreement with Bell Mobility to share cell tower space in all Mobilicity zones^[12]. The network uses the UMTS IV frequency band, also known as AWS, to provide UMTS (with HSPA) service^[13]. Using this band, user equipment transmits at 1710–1755 MHz, and receives at 2110–2155 MHz. AWS is the same frequency as Wind Mobile and Videotron in Canada and T-Mobile USA. Like WIND, Mobilicity does not have a 2G, EDGE, GPRS GSM Network.

Mobilicity's network is compatible with the same handsets and devices as Wind Mobile and Videotron networks, and UMTS handsets and devices offered by T-Mobile USA.

Services

Voice plans

Mobilicity entered the Canadian market on May 15, 2010 with six mobile voice plans at $15, $25, $35, $45, $55, and $65 monthly. These included lower-cost plans with limited features and an all-inclusive plan with unlimited talk, text and data. The $15, $55 and $65 have since been eliminated, while the remaining $25, $35 and $45 plans have been improved. Plan features can only be used within a Mobilicity unlimited zone.

The $25/month plan includes:

• Unlimited local calling
• Unlimited Mobilicity to Mobilicity calling
• Unlimited sent and received SMS and MMS to Canada and USA
• Caller ID

The $35/month plan includes all features found in the $25/month plan, plus:

• Province-wide long distance
• Call waiting, call forwarding, conference call and voicemail features

The $45/month plan includes all found in the $35/month plan, plus:

• Canada and USA long distance
• Unlimited sent and received SMS worldwide

Wind Mobile's plans are very similar to Mobilicity's.

Data plans

For feature phones and smartphones, unlimited mobile broadband Internet access can be added for $10 per month. Tethering is also allowed. BlackBerry users must instead pay $15 per month to use unlimited BlackBerry Internet Service.

There is also a $40 monthly plan that works exclusively with connect cards. Like the phone add-on, it also provides unlimited mobile Internet access. This plan is also available for $20 per month when combined to any regular priced voice plan.

Both plans can only be used within Mobilicity's coverage area. Customers must also follow the operator's Fair Use Policy, which prohibits "causing network instability", as well as illegal "copyright-protected or patent-protected material" transfered without the owner's permission. Those who breach the Fair Use Policy may face consequences, such as throttled Internet speeds or termination of service.^[14] As an example, Dave Dobbin tweeted: "you've downloaded 5 gig today, but now your speed is slow - please don't [complain]."^[15]

Roaming

When outside of the local Mobilicity coverage areas, subscribers have access to the T-Mobile USA 3G network and Rogers Wireless EDGE network, where they are charged roaming rates. Pay-per-use calls cost 20¢ per minute and SMS costs 10¢ per message. There are also bundles which include 30 minutes for $5 per month, or 60 minutes for $10 per month. In both cases, the resulting rate for the minutes included is 16.6̅¢ per minute, after which the regular rate of 20¢ per minute applies. Customers accessing the Internet via these networks will be charged $1.50 per megabyte, which is equivalent to $1536 per gigabyte.

Advertising

"Otis" (green male) and "Alexis" (purple female) advertise Mobilicity's products.

In 2011, Mobilicity began using two computer animated aliens to advertise their products. As a result of a naming competition the company had on the social networking site Facebook, the characters were named "Otis" (green male) and "Alexis" (purple female)^[16].

References

1. ^ Ian Hardy (November 18, 2011). "Mobilicity CEO suddenly departs to “pursue other interests”". MobileSyrup. http://mobilesyrup.com/2011/11/18/mobilicity-ceo-fired-more-changes-coming. Retrieved November 19, 2011. 
2. ^ Mobilicity is Canada’s newest wireless carrier WhatsYourTech.ca 2010-02-08
3. ^ "Auction of Spectrum Licences for Advanced Wireless Services and Other Spectrum in the 2 GHz Range: Summary by Licence Winner". http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf09004.html#data. 
4. ^ Sheryl Steinberg (November 16, 2010). "Mobilicity to open in Edmonton tomorrow". Mobilicity.com. http://mobilicity.ca/news/60/294/Mobilicity-to-open-in-Edmonton-tomorrow/. Retrieved November 17, 2010. 
5. ^ Sheryl Steinberg (November 17, 2010). "Mobilicity rallies troops to open in Vancouver tomorrow". Mobilicity.com. http://mobilicity.ca/news/61/294/Mobilicity-rallies-troops-to-open-in-Vancouver-tomorrow/. Retrieved November 17, 2010. 
6. ^ Sheryl Steinberg (November 18, 2010). "Mobilicity launches 3.5G network in Ottawa-Gatineau". Mobilicity.com. http://mobilicity.ca/news/62/294/Mobilicity-launches-3-5G-network-in-Ottawa-Gatineau/. Retrieved November 18, 2010. 
7. ^ Ian Hardy (April 13, 2011). "Mobilicity officially launching service in Calgary on April 28th". MobileSyrup.com. http://mobilesyrup.com/2011/04/13/mobilicity-officially-launching-in-calgary-on-april-28th/. Retrieved April 13, 2011. 
8. ^ [1] Wireless Canada 2010
9. ^ "Bell to relaunch Solo brand to fight Chatr", Canadian Press, 6 February 2010
10. ^ Jamie Sturgeon, "Mobilicity warns Rogers over 'chatr' brand launch", Financial Post, 23 July 2010
11. ^ Mobilicity In the Making
12. ^ Mobilicity In the Making
13. ^ I have a phone already; can I use it on the Mobilicity network? 2010-05-15
14. ^ "Mobilicity Services Terms and Conditions". Mobilicity. http://mobilicity.ca/uploads/pdfs/services-terms-conditions.pdf. Retrieved 2011-11-16. 
15. ^ Dobbin, Dave. "Thinking of emailing me to complain that you've downloaded 5 gig ...". Twitter. http://mobile.twitter.com/davedobbin/status/136821367814361089. Retrieved 2011-11-16. 
16. ^ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150307708482431&set=a.10150104764632431.290978.173833772430

External links

• Mobilicity
• Mobilicity launches handsets and plans for Toronto WhatsYourTech.ca