TORONTO – Mobile upstart Mobilicity will officially open for business on Saturday.
At a corporate store in Toronto’s east end, company chair John Bitove and president Dave Dobbin unveiled the company’s six handsets and six pay-in-advance plans, which all include free caller ID, Mobilicity-to-Mobilicity calling and do not require a contract or credit check.
"Canadians deserve easy and affordable wireless service," Bitove said Friday in a statement. "Mobilicity applies the simple unlimited local usage principles of landline calling to mobile communications. Pay a flat monthly fee and use the Mobilicity unlimited network as much as you want – it’s that simple."
The plans include unlimited North American text for $15 per month; unlimited local talk for $25 per month; unlimited local talk and text for $35 per month; and unlimited global text, talk, North American long-distance and data (with voicemail, call forwarding, three-way calling and call waiting) for $65 per month.
The company also introduced a wireless long-distance plan with $20 unlimited monthly add-on bundles to East Asia (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Vietnam) and South Asia (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh).
Its chosen handsets include the HTC Snap and BlackBerry Bold 9700 smart phones for $199.99 and $499.99 respectively; the Nokia 5230 priced at $169.99, which includes a Bluetooth headset; the Huawei U7519 for $109.99; the Totem and Sony Ericsson TM506 both priced at $99.99, and a data stick.
Per-minute-rate roaming will be available on a pay-per-use basis, as will features such as international calling, downloads and 411 directory assistance, though customers must first add funds into a dedicated, personal pay-per-use depository called ‘My Wallet’.
Mobilicity said that it will roll-out its service in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa later this year.
