Wind coming to Canada

Stu · 17-12-2009, 18:12

I was just reading the Wind cite and they are real interesting (if I was a Cannuck). First, when I first read about "home zones" on Wind's website, I thought that they were talking about a regional market like the competitors. (E.g. Toronto zone, Vancouver zone, Calgary zone, etc). They aren't, they are talking about "on network." A Toronto Wind phone roaming in Vancouver is on network. Away zone is roaming on other people's network and that is $0.25 a minute. The exception is their $35 "Always talk" plan which is province wide/home zone.

WIND Mobile | Support | FAQs

Wind will roam in the U.S. at $0.25 a minute. On network, you can get 5 gigs of on-device data for $35. It will be interesting to see what their tethering enforcement will be.

VladS · 17-12-2009, 18:36

The Wind site is still being tweaked. There's quite a bit of confusion and I'm certain there are lots of issues to be worked out from both a marketing as well as a network point of view.

None of their voice plans includes off-network (ie Rogers) access. The $35 (province-wide) and $45 (canada-wide) plans only cover long distance from the home zone (on-network). Roaming on the Rogers network is $0.25/minute for voice, long distance included and $0.10 for a 25kb block for data.

There are still many unanswered questions such as what would happen if a phone locks on the Rogers network while in the Home area due to poor in-building coverage or other issues.

I for one plan to hold off until they iron out most of the start-up quirks.

rockjock · 22-12-2009, 02:59

I agree the wait and see approach is a good one. So far my Rogers accounts have gone down in price, so Wind being around is good. But there is still the learning curve here. People do not want to pay 130.00 for a locked handset that will only work on Wind. This is a sore point. Also people are saying they get the phone and wait for days for service to be started. It is brand new so there will be glitches BUT with all the time they had one would have thought they would have tested things a bit. Even my Wind sim from Greece will not roam on them.. it will roam with rogers only.. They have work to do for sure.. and now a union is looking to challenge them in court which will complicate things. Since there is no contract people will adopt the wait and see stance.. There was a bloke who said that his store had several line ups.. some to get the new phones others to return them.

It will be interesting thats for sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VladS

The Wind site is still being tweaked. There's quite a bit of confusion and I'm certain there are lots of issues to be worked out from both a marketing as well as a network point of view.

None of their voice plans includes off-network (ie Rogers) access. The $35 (province-wide) and $45 (canada-wide) plans only cover long distance from the home zone (on-network). Roaming on the Rogers network is $0.25/minute for voice, long distance included and $0.10 for a 25kb block for data.

There are still many unanswered questions such as what would happen if a phone locks on the Rogers network while in the Home area due to poor in-building coverage or other issues.

I for one plan to hold off until they iron out most of the start-up quirks.

BLC · 22-12-2009, 19:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockjock

I agree the wait and see approach is a good one. So far my Rogers accounts have gone down in price, so Wind being around is good. But there is still the learning curve here. People do not want to pay 130.00 for a locked handset that will only work on Wind. This is a sore point. Also people are saying they get the phone and wait for days for service to be started. It is brand new so there will be glitches BUT with all the time they had one would have thought they would have tested things a bit. Even my Wind sim from Greece will not roam on them.. it will roam with rogers only.. They have work to do for sure.. and now a union is looking to challenge them in court which will complicate things. Since there is no contract people will adopt the wait and see stance.. There was a bloke who said that his store had several line ups.. some to get the new phones others to return them.

It will be interesting thats for sure.

I asked them why my Wind Italy phone wasn't roaming on their network and they said they have no agreement with Wind Italy yet!
I still have no service but will give them till after christmas to get things right.

PhotoJim · 22-12-2009, 20:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by BLC

I asked them why my Wind Italy phone wasn't roaming on their network and they said they have no agreement with Wind Italy yet!
I still have no service but will give them till after christmas to get things right.

Do any Wind Italy clients actually have a phone that supports UMTS 1700? Certainly none of the Wind-supplied phones in Italy will.

Until phones that have this band are more widespread, a roaming agreement isn't all that useful.

Now, Wind Canada roaming on Wind Italy would be very useful indeed.

BLC · 22-12-2009, 23:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhotoJim

Do any Wind Italy clients actually have a phone that supports UMTS 1700? Certainly none of the Wind-supplied phones in Italy will.

Until phones that have this band are more widespread, a roaming agreement isn't all that useful.

Now, Wind Canada roaming on Wind Italy would be very useful indeed.

Not that I know of yet. You can use your Wind Italy sim in an unlocked Wind Canada phone and vice versa as a Wind Canada phone won't work in Italy except as GSM, no 3g. Until they make 3g phones with all frequencies it will be a problem.

rockjock · 23-12-2009, 05:33

BLC you could place your sim into a WInd canada phone I think, but they are locked and so far no one has reported on a method to unlock them...but I think you would be roaming on rogers the whole time. AFAIK here are 17 or so handsets only that will run off wind canada AWS1700, Time will tell if hey go any farther. It would seem my Wind.GR sim needs to be registered and it was not oh well..

it seems like WIND.GR and WIND.IT and WIND.CDN share only the name.. nothing else. Oh a funny note the training manuals they used were translated to english and made little sense as did the website prices were in British pounds.. this led more and more people to ask what is Canadian about this company.. handsets imported from overseas was another point brought up.

this is going to be interesting.. so far my plan has gone down in price...

Quote:

Originally Posted by BLC

Not that I know of yet. You can use your Wind Italy sim in an unlocked Wind Canada phone and vice versa as a Wind Canada phone won't work in Italy except as GSM, no 3g. Until they make 3g phones with all frequencies it will be a problem.

adam917 · 23-12-2009, 02:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhotoJim

Do any Wind Italy clients actually have a phone that supports UMTS 1700? Certainly none of the Wind-supplied phones in Italy will.

Until phones that have this band are more widespread, a roaming agreement isn't all that useful.

Now, Wind Canada roaming on Wind Italy would be very useful indeed.

Don't most phones that come with UMTS 1700 also have 2100 for int'l roaming?

PhotoJim · 23-12-2009, 05:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by adam917

Don't most phones that come with UMTS 1700 also have 2100 for int'l roaming?

And does Wind not have 2G coverage? If so a lack of UMTS 2100 wouldn't matter much.

BLC · 23-12-2009, 15:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by adam917

Don't most phones that come with UMTS 1700 also have 2100 for int'l roaming?

Unfortunately no but I'am sure it will change in the future.

	(#1)
Stu (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Guru Posts: 1,091 Join Date: 11 Feb 2004 Location: Detroit (formerly Dubai) Country:	17-12-2009, 18:12 I was just reading the Wind cite and they are real interesting (if I was a Cannuck). First, when I first read about "home zones" on Wind's website, I thought that they were talking about a regional market like the competitors. (E.g. Toronto zone, Vancouver zone, Calgary zone, etc). They aren't, they are talking about "on network." A Toronto Wind phone roaming in Vancouver is on network. Away zone is roaming on other people's network and that is $0.25 a minute. The exception is their $35 "Always talk" plan which is province wide/home zone. WIND Mobile \| Support \| FAQs Wind will roam in the U.S. at $0.25 a minute. On network, you can get 5 gigs of on-device data for $35. It will be interesting to see what their tethering enforcement will be.

	(#2)
VladS (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Pioneer Posts: 590 Join Date: 22 Jun 2004 Country:	17-12-2009, 18:36 The Wind site is still being tweaked. There's quite a bit of confusion and I'm certain there are lots of issues to be worked out from both a marketing as well as a network point of view. None of their voice plans includes off-network (ie Rogers) access. The $35 (province-wide) and $45 (canada-wide) plans only cover long distance from the home zone (on-network). Roaming on the Rogers network is $0.25/minute for voice, long distance included and $0.10 for a 25kb block for data. There are still many unanswered questions such as what would happen if a phone locks on the Rogers network while in the Home area due to poor in-building coverage or other issues. I for one plan to hold off until they iron out most of the start-up quirks. VladS Mobile phones: iPhone 5, Blackberry 9900, Nexus S, Samsung S3322 duos Mobile data cards: Huawei E587u-5, Huawei E583c, Huawei E160 Postpaid SIMs: CA: Fido, Wind; INTL: Telna Prepaid SIMs: DE: Fonic, Lidl; AT: yesss!, bob; UK: O2; US: AT&T; RO: Orange, Vodafone; FR: b&you, Lycamobile; NL: Lycamobile; BE: Lycamobile, Jim Mobile; CL: Entel; MX: Telcel; INTL: eKit Blue, eKit Yellow Dead SIMs: too many to list