New mobile phone company DAVE Wireless has renamed itself as Mobilicity–combining mobile and simplicity–and plans to launch this spring in Toronto, with a rollout in other major cities later this year.
Chief executive officer Dave Dobbin said Mobilicity will offer a range of mobile devices from basic talk-and-text phones to smartphones with no contracts.
The company plans to start selling its services in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa later this year as wireless competition heats up across the country.
No pricing details were made available at the event.
While Mobilicity’s new name and logo were revealed at the offices of its agency of record, Dentsu, the corporate identity was created by Verse Group.
"Mobilicity will stand for a simple, straightforward, customer-friendly way of doing business," said Sara Moore, vice-president, marketing, in a statement. "Our clean brand design and crisp colours clearly convey that."
Toronto’s Dentsu is handling all advertising creative duties after winning a competitive review late last year.
The company’s internal marketing team had launched a small transit campaign under the DAVE brand in December, asking consumers to put off mobile contract renewals until after the holiday season.
After years of domination by the big three of Telus, Rogers and Bell, the Canadian wireless market is experiencing a wave of new entrants after the federal government conducted a wireless spectrum auction in 2008.
Wind Mobile, another newcomer, launched its wireless business in December and wants to compete as Canada’s fourth national carrier.
Other players Public Mobile and Quebec-based Videotron also say they will launch this year.
