| 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]
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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, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.[3] The domain davewireless.com was registered on July 10, 2008 via Go Daddy.[4] Later, on October 27, 2009, the domain mobilicity.ca was registered via Internic.ca and the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA).[5]
DAVE Wireless's website was launched with information as early as January 7. [6] The following month, on February 2, it was confirmed that the company would operate under the name Mobilicity.[7] Later, service was launched to the public on May 15, but only for the city of Toronto. On November 17th, service was launched in Edmonton and Vancouver,[8][9] and in the Ottawa and Gatineau area the following day.[10] Coverage in Calgary went live on 28th April 2011.[11] The company currently has no spectrum access within the province of Quebec, although there is minimal reception in Gatineau.[12]
The company faces close competition from Wind Mobile, plus Public Mobile and Videotron in some markets. Canada's three largest wireless carriers also have brands that compete against Mobilicity, the most notable example being Chatr brand from Rogers Wireless. Rogers' Fido, Bell's Virgin Mobile Canada and Telus' Koodo Mobile also offer similar City plans, at price points similar to those of Chatr and Mobilicity. Mobilicity contends that such plans, especially those offered by Chatr, are aimed directly at their service.[13] Rogers later paid a fine of $10 million for Chatr's misleading advertising. Bell has mimicked Chatr by relaunching its Solo Mobile brand for nearly identical purposes,[14] but Solo was withdrawn from the market in October 2011. Telus' Clearnet brand also offers low-cost plans, but consists of a landline and mobile phone bundle for residential customers. As such, it remains only available in two western cities unserved by Mobilicity.
Mobilicity's network was built in 2009 and currently maintained by Ericsson[15]. The company also has a cell-site sharing agreement with Bell Mobility to share cell tower space in all Mobilicity zones[16]. The network uses the UMTS IV frequency band, also known as AWS, to provide UMTS (with HSPA) service[17]. 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 and Videotron, 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.
Currently, Mobilicity's network coverage includes the Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa including Gatineau, plus Calgary, Edmonton, and the Greater Vancouver area.
On August 24, 2011, Mobilicity had an outage in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary. Affected customers could choose to receive either a complimentary voice mail add-on at no charge for three consecutive months, or a one-time prepaid credit.[18]
Towards the end of that year, on December 7, Mobilicity had an outage affecting all of its customers in the company's five markets. Initially, customers could not make any calls. Later, it was also impossible for them to receive calls. Those without Mobilicity who attempted to call a Mobilicity client would be subject to a busy signal, making it impossible for them to leave a voicemail even if the client subscribed to this feature. It is unknown whether or not any compensation was offered to affected customers.[19]
Numerous products are available at Mobilicity. While the carrier mostly sells various smartphones, other types of products are also available. There is a 14 day period for return or exchange on newly purchased products. The time period previously consisted of 30 days.
Mobilicity offers a small selection of feature phones. Three models are available:
All feature phones in Mobilicity's current lineup include a 365 day warranty.[20]
On the day of Mobilicity's launch, the Huawei U7519, Totem and Sony Ericsson TM506 feature phones phone were available. All are officially discontinued, although as of December 3, 2011[update], "Unlimited To Go" packages for the TM506 are still available at select HMV and Zellers.
Mobilicity currently carries eleven smartphones:
All smartphones in Mobilicity's current lineup have a 365 day warranty.[20]
Mobilicity is also the exclusive carrier of the Mobiflip smartphone in Canada. A variant of the T-Mobile Sidekick LX 2009, Mobilicity launched it on December 22, 2010. In less than a week, the operator sold the entire stock of two Mobiflip shipments.[21] it is now discontinued. The Samsung Gravity Touch feature phone is similar and succeeds the Mobiflip.
On the day of Mobilicity's launch, the BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Snap and Nokia 5230 smartphones were available. All are officially discontinued, although as of December 3, 2011[update], "Unlimited To Go" packages for the 5230 are still available at select Mobilicity dealers and third-party dealers such as Zellers.[22] All remaining stock of the Bold 9700 and 9780, plus the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, has been cleared out during Black Friday sales. These smartphones were sold at the cost of $199.99 each.
Currently, Mobilicity sells two devices that are exclusively designed for mobile broadband:
The E1691 is an USB mobile broadband modem that is officially supported by computers using the Windows, Mac OS X 10.4 or higher, or Linux operating systems. The E583 is a portable device, similar to the MiFi, that allows any Wi-Fi device to connect to mobile Internet. The E1691 and the E583C can download at speeds up to 7.2 Mbit/s.
There are also accessories available for these devices. The Huawei WS320 is a Wi-Fi signal repeater, while the Huawei D105 is a Wi-Fi dock which requires a USB mobile broadband modem.
Mobilicity offers "Unlimited Prepaid" packages, previously known as "Unlimited To Go". They consist of a feature phone or smartphone, bundled with a SIM card and one, two or three months of unlimited talk and text on Mobilicity's network. Bundles offer a significantly better value compared to purchasing its contents separately. Devices included in those packages are no longer present in Mobilicity's current device lineup, with the exception of the BlackBerry Curve 9300.
The following phones are available for purchase in an "Unlimited Prepaid" package:
While the Samsung C414 includes one month of the $25 plan, all other phones include two or three months of the $35 plan. Note that Motorola and Nokia devices include a bonus Bluetooth headset, while the BlackBerry Curve includes unlimited mobile broadband and BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) add-ons during the two months of unlimited service. Any "Unlimited Prepaid" activation done during the month of December in 2011 also entitles the customer to obtain a 50% discount for up to one year on regular plans, plus mobile broadband and BIS add-ons purchased after the included months in the bundle are used up.
The 16 GB and 32 GB variants of the BlackBerry Playbook can be purchased at Mobilicity stores. They also sell various Bluetooth cordless phones, designed for use at home in conjunction with a mobile phone.
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 to offer better value. While a $55 plan exists, it is simply the $45 plan with the $10 unlimited mobile Internet add-on.
All current plans include unlimited local calling, unlimited Mobilicity to Mobilicity calling, unlimited sent and received SMS and MMS to Canada and continental USA, and caller ID. Higher-tier plans offer additional unlimited features, which may include long distance, bonus calling features like voicemail, and sent and received SMS worldwide.
Plan features can only be used within a Mobilicity unlimited zone. Wind Mobile's regular voice plans mimic those currently offered by Mobilicity.
For feature phones and smartphones, unlimited mobile broadband Internet access can be added at a low price to any plan without this feature. Tethering is also allowed. BlackBerry users must use a different, costlier add-on for unlimited BlackBerry Internet Service.
There is also a standalone monthly plan that works exclusively with mobile broadband modems. Like the phone add-on, it also provides unlimited mobile Internet access. Discounts for this plan are available when it is combined with any voice plan at regular price.
Both the add-ons and mobile Internet plan 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.[23] As an example, former Mobilicity president and CEO Dave Dobbin tweeted: "you've downloaded 5 gig today, but now your speed is slow - please don't [complain]."[24]
In North America, when outside of the local Mobilicity coverage areas, subscribers without a roaming bundle can access to the T-Mobile USA 3G network and Rogers Wireless EDGE network by paying pay-per-use rates for talk, text and mobile Internet services. For both countries, prices are the same, and roaming bundles which include either 30 or 60 minutes at a reduced cost. The regular roaming rate, however, applies once all bundled minutes are used up. Roaming in other countries costs significantly more.
Mobilicity made a $40,000 charitable donation to the "S'Cool Life Fund".[25]
Mobilicity has many innovative advertising campaigns. In 2011, Mobilicity handed out Durex condoms on February 11, shortly before that year's Valentine's Day, in the all the cities it served at the time except for Calgary. There was also a $69/month couples plan promoted, valid for two people, with unlimited mobile talk, text and Internet access.[26][27]
Later that year, on June 16, 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)[28].
On December 5, 2011, Otis alone was animated in a "Bollywood Babies" commercial for the operator, where he said:
| “ | Well, there's three minutes I can't get back.[29] | ” |
Mobilicity has its own corporate retail store. Additionally, there are third-party authorized dealers that sell Mobilicity "Unlimited Prepaid" packages. This includes 7-Eleven,[30] HMV,[31] Metro,[32] NCIX, Staples, Walmart[33] and Zellers.[34]
There is also a Chinese Mobilicity retailer in Chinatown, Toronto. Unlike Wind Mobile, Mobilicity has not yet opened a retail store catered to the French demographic. They have only translated the packages of their Unlimited Prepaid products. French regions where the Mobilicity network is available include the Orleans and Vanier neighborhoods in Ottawa, as well as Gatineau.
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