Mobilicity expands to another three Canadian cities; more new services expected in coming year

Mobilicity, the flat-rate, no-contract cell phone provider has moved up from serving only Toronto by expanding to three other Canadian cities: Vancouver, Edmonton and Ottawa.

The company plans to add more cities within the next six months, and already has licenses to operate in 13 of Canada’s 16 biggest markets.

This is a heady time for wireless service in Canada. Companies beyond the big three (Telus, Rogers and Bell) are expanding services and new players are set to enter the scene. As the CBC notes, the increased competition was the result of a broadcast spectrum auction by the federal government in 2008:

The government, which had ruled that cellphone prices were too high and competition between Bell, Rogers and Telus too weak, gave new companies a leg up in that auction by reserving a portion of airwaves for them. The auction netted a number of new players that have launched services over the past year.

Wind Mobile has started up in Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, while Public Mobile has launched in Toronto and Montreal. Vidéotron recently announced it was rolling out services in Quebec, while Shaw Communications is expected to launch offerings next year.

The government is in the process of reviewing laws that prohibit foreign companies from owning the majority of a Canadian telecommunications provider. Both Wind and Mobilicity have indicated that they would support the easing of those restrictions — that Canadian companies with less than 10 per cent market share should be able to be owned by foreign entities.

For anyone tired of limited options and high prices when it comes to cell phone service, today was a good day.