When Industry Minister Tony Clement
clarified Canadian ownership rules for wireless carriers in December 2009, allowing Globalive's WIND Mobile to enter the market despite a majority owner from Egypt, the company was quick to get to market: within five days
the carrier was launched in Toronto. It was the first mobile carrier to join the market alongside Telus, Bell and Rogers in more than 10 years.
WIND had laid the groundwork for its aggressive marketing campaign -- based on customer-friendly initiatives such as contract-free service, no system access fees and "all-in" packages that include voice mail and caller ID -- with a social networking initiative seeking input for potential customers. And of course, it had spent the previous year constructing a next-generation cellular network. Company CEO Ken Campbell says, "we likely built more cell towers in Canada in a year than had ever been built before."
In that year, the company also hired 700 employees, Campbell says, about half of those in the GTA. Less than two months after its launch, WIND is growing quickly. The company
announced last week that it had secured debt financing for its rapid expansion, which followed news of hiring blitzes in
Edmonton and
Ottawa and
network improvements in and around the GTA. The company's action is good news for Toronto's battered employment market, as the company is
immediately hiring for at least 45 positions in the GTA alone.
"We're building for the long-term," Campbell says, "not for a year or two years. But only eight weeks after our launch, we're please with how things are going."
Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Ken Campbell, CEO, WIND Mobile