Wirelessnorth.ca

The new entrant formerly known as 6934579 Canada Inc. (or on this blog as the Tirabassi mystery co.) has come clean on their plans for the Canadian Market. You may recall that 6934579 was an entrant than came out swinging early in the auction before settling on an somewhat oddball piece of spectrum (the G band) just off to the right of the main AWS band. A corner of spectrum poo-pooed by the big GSM players like Nokia/Ericson as orphan spectrum not really useful for anything. But apparently not so…

Alek Krstajic the new CEO of of BMV Holdings (real brand name TBD) gave us a call yesterday to spill the story on their big plans for Gband..

His take is that the other entrants “blew their brains out” spending far too much for too little spectrum. The encumbents “must feel like they dodged a bullet” Alek believes. The 10MHz G band is pretty tiny itself but by loading it up with cheap CDMA (yes you read that right) equipment, offer only talk and text (yes only talk and text) and he figures they can capture 1.8M subscribers across Ontario and Quebec

CDMA also has some advantages of a narrow channel width than GSM/HSPA making it easier for them to manage the network and future upgrades without having to switch off current subscribers (a problem other new entrants with only 10MHz could have).

BMV’s other big advantage is low cost. By going for G band they spent a tenth of what Quebecor or Globalive (“those guys will drowning in debt”) spent on spectrum. Combine that with vintage CDMA equipment from the Qualcom bargain bin and you have, maybe, a low cost winner.

Here’s the plan they will be offering: $40 flat rate unlimited local talk and text. Launching (Alek you’ve locked down that financing right?) mid 2009 in Quebec and Ontario. Not unlike Metro PCS which you may know of from the Sanfran/Bay Are (BMV’s backers where behind metro PCS too).

Is BMV designed as a koodo killer (Cheap service, basic phones, CDMA etc.)? Alek says they aren’t. “Koodo is splashing billboards all over Toronto with messages like ‘dump the systeme access fee’” Alek says the folk’s he’s targeting are new cell phone have no idea what a system access fee is because they haven’t had a phone before. Koodo is all about capturing churn whereas BMV will be growing the pie. Remember Canada is still a very under-penetrated wireless market.

So this isn’t a koodo killer so much as a landline killer. BCE be worried. Why pay likely more than $40/month for a local phone tethered to an ancient bit of copper when you could get a mobile equivalent for the same or lesser price?

Good for Alek and BMV to be shaking the industry up a little. The downside? This is not an innovation story. This is not growing the market for smartphones (“if you want a smart phone, no problem, go
visit my friend Pierre Karl Péladeau says Alek”) or mobile content or mobile experience innovation in Canada. Two steps forward, one step back.

For those keeping score:

++ for new competition
+ for getting mobile phones in the hands of more Canadians
+ for keeping the big guys honest at the low end
- for putting 90′s-era mobile technology in the hands of more Canadians
– for the reality check on the long road still ahead for new entrants

Videotron, Gloabalive (more or less) and now BMV have announced their plans, still waiting for Eastlink, Shaw (not soon?), DAVE and more…

Photo credit: flickr – woodleywonderworks