My Cellphone My Terms

Is Wind Mobile Failing?

What’s happening with Wind Mobile?

Recently I was invited on SunTV’s Canoe Live to speak about Wind Mobile’s issues in the market place. The general consensus based on media reports was that Wind’s foray into the Canadian cell phone market has been laced with problems and that they launched before they were “ready”. Well I see things a bit differently.

Wind Mobile was doomed to failed expectations the minute they announced their entry into the marketplace. Everyone expected that after they launched that they would single-handedly be the ones responsible for dropping the cost of our cell phone bills to more “reasonable” levels. Well that has not happened…..yet!

Change takes time and any new wireless provider will have issues out of the gate; no one launches a national wireless company without dealing with a few issues. While I would agree that some of these issues could have been minimized, all could not have been avoided.

Some of the key issues Wind is facing can be considered natural growing pains:

• Limited network coverage – Wind focused on the main metropolitan areas like Toronto, Calgary and Edmonton, a smart move, but outside of these areas Wind’s customers will be roaming with Rogers and this drives uncertainty in their bills.
• Expensive handsets and limited choices – At launch there were only four handsets available to consumers, and given that all were available on “no contract” arrangements, the typical contract discounts were missing – hence all these phones were above $150, a tall order for the Canadian consumer who has been conditioned to get low priced or free phones on contract. In addition with the high demand for high priced smartphones many consumers would not be willing to spend over $400 on a phone – not yet at least.
• General operational hiccups – from issues with porting consumer numbers from the incumbent carriers to Wind’s platform to issues with limited billing and payment options – Wind got hit with a lot of negative customer feedback regarding what would otherwise be considered the standard in a market with players who have been at this for 10 – 15 years. The departure of their chief customer officer, Chris Robbins – their number 2 executive has not help matters either.
• Limited cell phone plans in market -  Wind has a handful of a few plans available to customers in a one size fits all approach. While it is simple and easy to understand, customers are diverse in their needs as they are with their cell phones.

While these issues at first glance may appear insurmountable, they are not. Wind will continue to build out its network and develop a robust infrastructure that will one day rival the incumbents – Bell, Rogers and TELUS. As they continue to grow they will get better handsets and at cheaper rates as they start to reach economies of scale. Their operational issues will be addressed along with a menu of options for different consumers when it comes to their plans. In addition, with all the carriers moving to GSM/HSPA we can expect a growing and thriving gray market for cell phones which customers will purchase at discounted rates and then leverage the carrier’s plans by purchasing only the SIM. This reduces the need for an extensive handset line-up and reduces the need for extensive subsidies on phones thereby limiting the impact contracts will have in this new environment.

As Wind grows from infant to adult, we will start to see a greater response from the incumbent providers and their flanker brands – Koodo, Solo, Virgin and Fido -  in addition, add in the many other new entrants coming into the market place like Mobilicity and Public Mobile and the market place will start to heat up. Canadians will then start to see the kind of competition they expected from the very beginning. This however, takes time and we are at least a year away from seeing the kind of changes that we expected when Wind Mobile first launched.