A newcomer in the mobile market is going live this fall. Globalive Communications Corp., the decade-old Toronto company behind Yak, is rolling out a national wireless brand to compete with Canada’s Big Three Rogers, Bell and Telus. Aiming to win 1.5 million customers in three years, the company will offer budget-friendly, prepaid, no-contract plans. And it has the deep pockets to compete: financing partner Orascom Telecom is expected to pour in up to US$700 million over four years. WING SZE TANG spoke with Anthony Lacavera, Globalive’s chairman and CEO, on his plans for the little telecom company that could.
Who is your target consumer?
There are two broad categories that we are initially targeting—what we call “the disenfranchised” and “the underserved.” The disenfranchised are a very knowledgeable set of consumers who know a lot about wireless. They may have a lot of international experience or exposure to wireless through their family or friends. They may even be a first- or second-generation Canadian, or a first-generation Canadian who has had a wireless phone in another country… and they’re really unhappy with the market offerings as they are today. They know all about the sub-brands of the big incumbents and are looking forward to having a new independent out there. The underserved are Canadians who have not yet adopted mobile services or are extremely limited users, mostly because they feel they’re too expensive or the contracts are very onerous.
How will you position Globalive Wireless to differentiate it from not only the Big Three but also their value-oriented brands (Solo, Koodo, Fido)?
When we looked at getting into the business, we wanted to differentiate ourselves from the pack. We started with WirelessSoapbox.com [an online forum that elicits consumer feedback on cellphone services], and the response has been incredible. Over 50,000 people have gone on our site in a few short months and given us tens of thousands of comments on what they want to see in wireless. Our next big point of differentiation is going to be Wireless Soapbox phase two, which is all about a collaborative effort with Canadians to build the next great wireless company in Canada. We think that in the Web 2.0 world, collaboration is very important with customers, and that’s what’s going to differentiate us. We are establishing ourselves as a brand that listens, that responds, that works with customers.
Can you give me an example of how consumer feedback on Wireless Soapbox affected your marketing or business plans?
I expected to see it all about price, but in fact what we learned on Wireless Soapbox is the number one issue with Canadians is their wireless bill. It seems like they don’t understand their bill; it’s confusing; there are too many line items. You hear all kinds of anecdotes: “I can’t budget because I have no idea what my bill is going to be. It’s frustrating, and because I get a different number every month, I don’t trust my service provider.” That was a surprise for me, so one of the things we’ve invested a lot of time and effort into is how we can make our bill simple, easy and effective. Had I just done a focus group, I might have ended up thinking, “Yup, as I expected, price is the number one issue, but it’s not. Price is down the list.”
Can you tell me about the MyScreen marketing application that will be embedded on Globalive’s mobile devices?
MyScreen is an advertising-driven model, and what’s unique about it is that it has a very low footprint on the device itself. It’s an opt-in model with the objective of lowering a wireless bill. Basically when you make a call, as soon as it ends, the wallpaper on the phone changes from your home screen to the MyScreen ad. Then when you press another button, it goes back to your wallpaper. It’s very non-intrusive that way. You could press “end call” twice and not even see the ad, but we found that people are actually signing up because they want to get this type of advertising. They want to see promos and discounts from [companies] that are interesting to them, and obviously they have the added benefit of lowering their mobile bill.
Wing Sze Tang is a freelance writer in Toronto
