No-frills wireless carrier Public Mobile is going after Canadians who don’t own mobile phones in the lower end of the market where its CEO expects consolidation and possible acquisitions.
“Very clearly, our target market is what we refer to as the unserved,” said chief executive Alek Krstajic, adding about a third of Canadians don’t have cellphones. “We just aren’t going to try to do everything for everybody all at once.”
Public Mobile launches Wednesday in Toronto and in Montreal on June 25.
Krstajic said he eventually expects some of the new wireless players to find themselves in a tough competitive spot.
Globalive‘s Wind Mobile brand launched last December and Toronto-based Mobilicity launched earlier this month.
“There’s another consolidation that will take place,” he said.
Krstajic said he believes Public Mobile’s two plans will be appealing to consumers and competitors as a model.
One plan, for $40 a month, offers unlimited talk and will include such features as voice mail and call display. The other plan, for local calling only, will cost $24 a month and was based on a conversation with a cab driver about what the driver wanted in a mobile phone, Krstajic said.
While he said Public Mobile isn’t for sale, Krstajic said he expects established players Rogers, Bell and Telus to be watching.
“We will consolidate the lower end of the market,” he said Tuesday from Toronto.
“The incumbents will watch us do it and then, when the time is right, they would rather come around and buy us than contaminate their whole customer base.”
Public Mobile bought radio spectrum over which cellphone signals operate in a federal auction two years ago for $52 million.
Krstajic said the block of spectrum Public Mobile purchased wasn’t set aside by the Ottawa specifically for new competitors, meaning there are no time restrictions on when it can be sold.
