I never thought i’d see the day - a new cell phone company is entering the Canadian market!  Just last week, WIND Mobile got the official thumbs-up to fight for customers in Canada’s cell phone biz.  And really… it’s about time.

Canadians have been paying up the a** with rates that really can only be described as abolute extortion.  I don’t think people realize that we are ranked as the third most expensive country for cell phone rates in the world.

911 fees, call display, received text messages… We’re paying the cell phone companies for services that don’t cost them a dime.  And that’s the biggest reason I’m happy the federal cabinet has overturned a CRTC ruling that would have prevented WIND Mobile from entering the market.  WIND Mobile is going to play a major role in driving costs down in the cell phone biz.

The company says they’ll be throwing all those extra (not to mention unneccesary) fees out the window.  They’ve been running a pretty clever advertising campaign that illustrates the lunacy of these fees.  They feature people paying for stupid things in the street:

I also like their commercial that pokes fun at cell phone companies locking you into multi-year contracts:

WIND Mobile hasn’t officially released their rates yet - but there have been rumours floating around.   Apparently - and again, these are just rumours for now - they’ll be be offering unlimited Canada-wide calling with unlimited text messages and voicemail for $45/month.

I know that sounds shockingly cheap to some people, but the reality is, that’s what the rest of the world is paying.  If you go to anyone outside of Canada and told them you had to pay to receive a text message they would laugh in your face.

WIND Mobile is starting out in Toronto and Vancouver, and I hear transmitters are still in the works here in Kelowna.  But when it does become available to us, I’m not saying you need to switch to WIND to reap the benefits.  It’s a clear win for consumers all over, no matter what company you’re with… because this is going to spur competition among the Telus, Rogers and Bell to match what WIND claims to offer.  That means we should all soon be paying a lot less on cell phones.  And for me, that means more money to spend on other gadgets.