How do you like Wind? - Shaw Purchases Wind

[Finger Cookin]

Wind ready to bid in next spectrum auction

Wind, the small carrier with ambitions of spreading across the country, was unable to bid in February’s auction because its backer, Vimpelcom, was not willing to advance more capital.

However, Wind has since restructured with a new group taking over Vimpelcom’s stake and has said it hopes to bid for next generation wireless spectrum.

In an interview with CBC's The Exchange with Amanda Lang, Wind chairman Tony Lacavera expressed optimism that the opening up of new spectrum would make Wind a national player.

“We’ve still a long way to make ourselves a truly competitive player on a level playing field with the incumbents but in six or so years we have come a very long way," he said.

Lacavera said recent roaming regulations have expanded Wind's coverage to about 97 per cent of the Canadian market. But it needs access to high-speed service over new bandwidths.

"The mobile internet is exploding and Canadians are increasingly watching video on their mobile phones. There’s incredible growth in demand for more mobile internet and that translates into the need for more real estate to give more services to Canadians," Lacavera said.

Wind Press Release

Come on, WIND!

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

Wind ready to bid in next spectrum auction


Wind Press Release

Come on, WIND!

Good to see them potentially getting in on the 600MHz and AWS-3 spectrum. It's a shame no current phones support them. Too bad they got screwed by the Russians over the 700Mhz.

[Azure]

How long till there are phones released that support 600mhz? Sounds better than 700mhz.

[Finger Cookin]

Do any phones use 2500Mhz currently? I'm not very knowledgeable on this stuff.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

Do any phones use 2500Mhz currently? I'm not very knowledgeable on this stuff.

Yes... Sprint uses the 2500MHz band in the states and Nexus 6/iPhone 6 already supports it. I believe it's referred to as LTE band 41.

Bands have not even been drawn up for 600MHz yet as there isn't a clear idea how much spectrum will be recovered from UHF TV broadcasters so likely radios and phones for this band will not be released until later in 2015 or early 2016. Good thing is AT&T and VZW are already limited from this in the states. Canadian government has said this auction will heavily favor new entrants and small operators.

[harmony]

I rather like wind. have been on wind or mobi for the past few years. the only issue is if you live at the border of the home coverage area. it doesn't know which network to attach to, so it constantly switches back and forth, and you don't get signal half the time. and the $15/mo unlimited US roaming voice/data is just plain awesome

[Igster]

My contract with Rogers is up in less than a year, so I'm thinking a switch may be in the cards. Wind sounds like a pretty good company to deal with and their prices are very good.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Igster

Wind sounds like a pretty good company to deal with and their prices are very good.

I'd say you are half right. Their prices are very good. Any time I've had to call them about anything is brutal. However the guys at Chinook are pretty good; just don't go in when they are busy.

[Igster]

Good to know. I don't call Rogers at all really, so if I don't have any issues, should be good. I was just looking at their prices. Very good. Plus when they get the Nexus 6, I might pull the trigger.

[FlameOn]

Their call centres are really hit or miss, some of their staff are really knowledgeable but then at the same time there are others that are not very helpful. Maybe it's a gap in their training.

[Igster]

Yeah well, you could say the same about Rogers and Bell. I've encountered brutal service with both.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Lots of interesting spectrum auctions coming down the pipe, 2500mhz this year, 3500 next, and with talk of a 600mhz spectrum being made available Wind, or another new entrant should be able to make a mark.

[To Be Quite Honest]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Lots of interesting spectrum auctions coming down the pipe, 2500mhz this year, 3500 next, and with talk of a 600mhz spectrum being made available Wind, or another new entrant should be able to make a mark.

The lower the spectrum the better. 600mhz would mean about 6 towers from Calgary to Edmonton (approx) where the 2500 and 3500 would be 20 - 30 towers. So says the rep I talked too.

I am enjoying the $45 plan. Just spent a week roaming and the plan has a $10.00 service credit that will cover all roaming text, call and data fees up to $10.00.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by To Be Quite Honest

The lower the spectrum the better.

Yup, that's why the 700mhz spectrum last year was so prized. Several hurdles to go through before we see 600mhz though, won't be happening soon.

It'll be interesting to see what Wind does. Would they use new spectrum and repurpose it for LTE, or build and improve their current network.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/next...iers-1.2877676

Moore said he has a goal of having new entrants to the wireless market control about 25 per cent of spectrum by the end of 2015. Currently they control about 16 per cent of spectrum.

Other plans announced today:

Canada will work with the U.S. to relocate over-the-air television to free up the low-frequency 600 MHz spectrum for wireless.

A new licensing option will be offered for spectrum in the 3500 MHz band that remains unused. This band has traditionally been designated for fixed-wireless internet service.

A new competitor will be chosen to operate a satellite and a land-based network in the AWS-4 spectrum.

A new consistent licensing process will be developed for spectrum in the 24, 28 and 38 GHz bands, which are used to support mobile broadband traffic and broadband access for businesses.

Additional 2100 MHz spectrum will be made available to support wireless infrastructure

[Finger Cookin]

Same link in post #421 above.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

Same link in post #421 above.

Don't play me like that homeboy.

[Finger Cookin]

[AcGold]

My bill went from 40 a month to 16. No idea why but I'm not complaining.

[psyang]

Originally Posted by Yellefan

I'm wondering if maybe I was being throttled for some reason as all of a sudden today I'm getting much better speeds. I'll keep an eye on it but it's much better now.

Curious if you've noticed whether your speeds have continued to improve? We are trialing Wind for a month, and I'm seeing frequent data disconnection during speedtest, and speeds around 1-2mbps up/0.1mbps down when the test is finally able to complete. What gave some hope was the very first time we tried running speedtest, we got about 7mbps up/2mbps down. But nothing close to that since.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by To Be Quite Honest

I am enjoying the $45 plan. Just spent a week roaming and the plan has a $10.00 service credit that will cover all roaming text, call and data fees up to $10.00.

That's fine as long as you use that $10 in roaming every other month. To spend $4 to get a $10 credit that you may not use doesn't seem like good value. Especially when their commercial says that you now have the freedom to roam across Canada. 200 MB of data doesn't cover much; certainly not enough to let a 6 year old play with your phone on a road trip.