Public Mobile Leaked Document: 'Rogers is Obsessed With Putting New Entrants Out of Business'

Some insider numbers and opinions have surfaced around Public Mobile, one of Canada's startup discount carriers.

A tipster leaked a document to mobile blog Mobile Syrup. The internal memo was revealing and Public Mobile immediately requested that Syrup take it down.

But the information is out there regardless: for example, Public Mobile invested $52 million in the 2008 wireless auction for coverage from Windsor to Quebec, and the private company has $400 in investments from Omers, ZTE, and the Export-Import Bank of China.

More interesting was that its tightly kept secret of subscriber numbers has been revealed. Public Mobile has "more than 150,000 customers" and September was the company's "best month for growth" ever. For qualify this a bit, Public's third-quarter gain in subscribers was 40,000, which is "50% higher than the combined prepaid growth of all 3 Incumbents." (Rogers, Telus, and Bell; prepaid only.) Wind Mobile, comparatively, has around 400,000 subscribers, but is also available in many more cities. Mobilicity's numbers remain private.

Public Mobile also stated that the Big Three were "behaving as expected," in that they weren't trying to compete directly with the startups, focusing instead on postpaid contracts and high-end smartphones… except for Rogers. In the memo, Public described Rogers as having an "obsession" with "putting new entrants out of business." Public believes that Chatr, Rogers' discount brand, was built exclusively to eat up market share from the newcomers and stifle wireless competition in Canada.

Finally, according to the official document, Public Mobile has plans to launch Android devices by the end of the year.