In case you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard, WIND mobile got the OK from our Canadian goverment early last week. WIND mobile is probably the largest new wireless providers entering into country.

What does this mean for you?
Firstly, go to Bell, Telus, or Rogers and check out their plans…
Secondly, compare those plans to WIND mobile’s plans.
Thirdly, think about how Canadian cell providers rip most people off.
Fourthly, Pray that it’ll lower the average wireless rates in the next few years.

You should notice a significant difference in the monthly rate as well as NO CONTRACTS at all. I’m not going to bother comparing exact numbers cause I’m too lazy to do the math and I’m sure the 3 big providers will begin re-shaping their plans in the next year.

WIND has a two-zone system (Home/Away zones) setup in Calgary and Toronto with expansion in Vancouver and Ottawa in the next few months. They are fairly limited and if you step out of the home zone, you will be charged 25cents a minute (this likely doesn’t include long distance fees which would be 15cents extra a minute). This sorta system is probably not well suited for the average university student as they are likely living outside the home-zone area and are visiting friends in other schools.

WIND’s network is a 3G network within its Home zone, however it will fall-back to EDGE (2G) on Roger’s network while roaming. It uses the 3G AWS spectrum, the same spectrum which is used by T-mobile in the USA. Please note that these phones are unlockable, but they are NOT compatible with regular HSPA+ networks. So don’t buy a WIND or T-Mobile phone and unlock it hoping to use it for rogers/bell/telus.

I don’t personally know anyone using this new network, but would be interested to see what happens when it is fully expanded to Vancouver. If you are near the end of your cell term. Consider waiting a few months to see what happens as I think the big 3 providers will offer better deals in order to prevent people from switching. Perhaps they’ll lean towards 2-year contracts instead of the dreaded 3-year deals they currently have.

Lastly, if you haven’t seen some of their promo videos already, take a look here

Here’s some other info/links for further reading:

BGR – How WIND mobile changed Canada in less than 24 hours
Wikipedia – Wind Mobile
WIND Mobile Blog