Rogers has just fired their own broadside with the introduction of another virtual mobile service, Chatr, which feeds off of their own phone network (very similar to Fido, another Rogers-owned company).
It is very obvious with their pricing structure, and the cities that they are in that they are strictly trying to wipe out Wind Mobile and/or Mobilicity off the face of the planet. What’s hilarious is that Wind Mobile has no spectrum license in Quebec (other than the Ottawa-Gatineau area), and Rogers/Chatr’s service offerings are identical to the locations offered by Wind Mobile – Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto and Ottawa. On Montreal, they stated:
“We’re working out some translation issues in Montreal, but it will very soon be our sixth market,” Chatr’s senior vice-president Garrick Tiplady said in an interview.
Translation issues indeed! More like “There’s no rush since our competition isn’t there!”
You can be sure as Wind Mobile expands to other cities and/or expands their coverage in their existing cities, that Chatr will come up with “service enhancements” to incorporate those areas into their own “home network” as well.
Their pricing plan is, for the most part, identical to Wind Mobile’s structure, with the most notable exception that on Rogers/Chatr’s $35 plan, they charge 25 cents to recover your voicemail, and they charge for incoming text messages.
Since the coverage areas between Chatr and Wind is nearly identical, I have no idea who would sign up to them.
As I stated in a previous post, the new entrants to the Canadian wireless market are not going to be making any money. The only reason why Rogers is doing any of this is to bankrupt Wind Mobile and Mobilicity – Rogers/Chatr’s offering adds absolutely no value whatsoever to the Canadian mobile marketplace other than wasting consumer’s time as they have yet another offering to review.