FIDO在大多伦多地区从今天开始推出CITYFIDO服务.
$45 大多地区UNLIMITED任意打,可以把现有的固定电话号码转到它的计划中.它的计划费用包括7块的网络费和911费.
难怪TELUS要恶意收购它.不知FIDO什么时候在OTTAWA/HULL也推这个业务?
GTA
CityFido offers unlimited local calling for $45 Controversial plan on heels of hostile Telus takeover bid
TYLER HAMILTON
TECHNOLOGY REPORTER
With a $1.1 billion hostile takeover bid from Telus Corp. hanging overhead, Microcell Telecommunications Inc. pushed forward yesterday with a major expansion of its controversial flat-rate wireless plan.
Canada's smallest mobile-phone company announced that its CityFido service, launched seven months ago in Vancouver, will become available across the Greater Toronto Area beginning Thursday.
The service offers unlimited local calling for $45, with its local calling area stretching from Oshawa to Burlington to Barrie. It is the first mobile-phone plan marketed as a replacement for traditional local phone service.
André Tremblay, chief executive officer and president of Montreal-based Microcell, said the plan is to launch the CityFido service in every Canadian city. This would coincide with the expansion of its new iFido high-speed wireless Internet service, part of a joint venture with Allstream Inc. and NR Communications.
"This is a bold step for Microcell," said Tremblay at the CityFido launch at the Royal Ontario Museum. He said a bundle of wireless local and high-speed Internet services ― eventually including wireless calls through the Internet ― will mean customers can "entirely cut the cord from traditional services."
"Unfortunately, this vision is not generally shared by our competitors," he added.
Tremblay said rivals Telus Mobility, Bell Mobility and Rogers Wireless Inc. have been putting their energies instead into thwarting the kind of competition CityFido represents. He said rivals have attacked Microcell in ways that stray beyond proper business ethics and, in some cases, have required formal complaints to the competition watchdog.
One of the most outspoken critics of the CityFido plan has been Burnaby, B.C.-based Telus, which was the first to launch a targeted advertising campaign in retaliation for Microcell launching the service in Telus's home turf of Vancouver.
Last Thursday, Telus launched an unsolicited bid to purchase Microcell. If successful, the acquisition would reduce the Canadian wireless market to three players and eliminate an industry "problem child" accused of undermining the health of the mobile-phone sector because of its aggressive pricing.
"We expect Microcell to continue to price aggressively as it decides how to respond to Telus's bid," Dvai Ghose, a telecom analyst with CIBC World Markets, wrote in a research note.
Tremblay said he expected to receive the formal bid yesterday and that it was "way too early to comment." He declined to speculate on whether a competing bid was likely.
The market is pricing Microcell's Class A shares about $2 higher than Telus's per-share offer of $29, leading some observers to speculate that a competing bid from Rogers or Bell is on the way. But some analysts are downplaying the likelihood, even though Rogers is a better technical fit for Microcell and Bell could benefit more than Telus from Microcell's tax losses.
Microcell said local wireline customers who switch to the CityFido plan are able to keep their old phone number.
Alain Rhéaume, chief operating officer of Microcell Solutions Inc., said the company has invested $30 million to enhance its Toronto network capacity in anticipation of greater demand.
$45 大多地区UNLIMITED任意打,可以把现有的固定电话号码转到它的计划中.它的计划费用包括7块的网络费和911费.
难怪TELUS要恶意收购它.不知FIDO什么时候在OTTAWA/HULL也推这个业务?
GTA
CityFido offers unlimited local calling for $45 Controversial plan on heels of hostile Telus takeover bid
TYLER HAMILTON
TECHNOLOGY REPORTER
With a $1.1 billion hostile takeover bid from Telus Corp. hanging overhead, Microcell Telecommunications Inc. pushed forward yesterday with a major expansion of its controversial flat-rate wireless plan.
Canada's smallest mobile-phone company announced that its CityFido service, launched seven months ago in Vancouver, will become available across the Greater Toronto Area beginning Thursday.
The service offers unlimited local calling for $45, with its local calling area stretching from Oshawa to Burlington to Barrie. It is the first mobile-phone plan marketed as a replacement for traditional local phone service.
André Tremblay, chief executive officer and president of Montreal-based Microcell, said the plan is to launch the CityFido service in every Canadian city. This would coincide with the expansion of its new iFido high-speed wireless Internet service, part of a joint venture with Allstream Inc. and NR Communications.
"This is a bold step for Microcell," said Tremblay at the CityFido launch at the Royal Ontario Museum. He said a bundle of wireless local and high-speed Internet services ― eventually including wireless calls through the Internet ― will mean customers can "entirely cut the cord from traditional services."
"Unfortunately, this vision is not generally shared by our competitors," he added.
Tremblay said rivals Telus Mobility, Bell Mobility and Rogers Wireless Inc. have been putting their energies instead into thwarting the kind of competition CityFido represents. He said rivals have attacked Microcell in ways that stray beyond proper business ethics and, in some cases, have required formal complaints to the competition watchdog.
One of the most outspoken critics of the CityFido plan has been Burnaby, B.C.-based Telus, which was the first to launch a targeted advertising campaign in retaliation for Microcell launching the service in Telus's home turf of Vancouver.
Last Thursday, Telus launched an unsolicited bid to purchase Microcell. If successful, the acquisition would reduce the Canadian wireless market to three players and eliminate an industry "problem child" accused of undermining the health of the mobile-phone sector because of its aggressive pricing.
"We expect Microcell to continue to price aggressively as it decides how to respond to Telus's bid," Dvai Ghose, a telecom analyst with CIBC World Markets, wrote in a research note.
Tremblay said he expected to receive the formal bid yesterday and that it was "way too early to comment." He declined to speculate on whether a competing bid was likely.
The market is pricing Microcell's Class A shares about $2 higher than Telus's per-share offer of $29, leading some observers to speculate that a competing bid from Rogers or Bell is on the way. But some analysts are downplaying the likelihood, even though Rogers is a better technical fit for Microcell and Bell could benefit more than Telus from Microcell's tax losses.
Microcell said local wireline customers who switch to the CityFido plan are able to keep their old phone number.
Alain Rhéaume, chief operating officer of Microcell Solutions Inc., said the company has invested $30 million to enhance its Toronto network capacity in anticipation of greater demand.
