DAVE Wireless becomes Mobilicity: Chairman John Bitove (left) and President Dave Dobbin unveil Mobilicity, the companys go-to-market consumer brand name, at a press conference in Toronto, Tuesday, February 2, 2010.Derek Oliver
Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises Wireless Inc. will be less of a mouthful when it launches cellular service in Canada this spring as Mobilicity, as the company unveiled its brand name for the first time, along with a fuchsia and lime green logo.
"It's an exciting day for us," DAVE Wireless President Dave Dobbin said at a press conference in Toronto.
"We're here to tell you that Mobilicity will bring unbeatable value and unlimited plans to wireless consumers in Canada's biggest cities," said DAVE Wireless Chairman John Bitove, who spoke beside Mr. Dobbin.
Instead of elite, high-revenue generating customers who roam globally and use a lot of smart phone data, Mr. Dobbin said he will be chasing those who "live, work and play" in Canada's most populous cities. Speaking earlier on Tuesday at a Toronto Board of Trade breakfast, which was well-attended by BlackBerry-toting business people and some telecom executives, Mr. Dobbin said: "You won't be our customers."
He said the company will launch in Toronto in the spring of 2010, and will roll out in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa later this year. The company will sell its phones "at cost," without the subsidies common in Canada, and will not offer contracts. It will launch with a variety of handsets, including smart phones, from BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd., Nokia Corp. and Sony Ericsson.
DAVE is one of several new entrants that bought wireless spectrum in a government auction in 2008, spending $243-million for spectrum in 10 Canadian cities.
Like Globalive Wireless Management Corp.'s Wind Mobile, which launched in December, DAVE is marketing itself as a "value" provider. Neither new entrant seeks to compete with the incumbents' low-cost "flanker" brands, like Telus Corp.'s Koodoo, Rogers Communications Inc.'s Fido, or BCE Inc.'s Solo Mobile.
"We are not going to compete with the incumbents head on," he said. "Think of us as the WestJet of wireless."
Unlike Wind, however, DAVE is not pitching itself as a national carrier: It has only bought spectrum in high density urban areas, not the corridors that link them. It has a Canadian roaming agreement with Rogers Wireless and a U.S. deal with T-Mobile USA Inc., and is currently working on securing an international deal.
"We're not pretending to be a national network," Mr. Dobbin told reporters after his speech, adding that Dave will sell handsets and plans from a limited number of urban retail stores and kiosks.
Mr. Dobbin said his company has been trying to keep costs low: He works out of Vaughan, Ont., and said "if it's outsourceable, we've done it."
Telecom equipment-maker Ericsson is building out DAVE's network, he said.