Anthony Lacavera, the CEO of wireless wannabe Globalive Communications Corp., is downplaying concerns about the impact of the financial crisis on the company's bid to become the country's fourth national wireless player.
Lacavera said yesterday that Globalive, which bid $442 million on wireless airwaves in a government auction, is unaffected by the ongoing credit crunch that has raised the cost of borrowing money for corporations and sent the U.S. financial sector into a tailspin.
Anthony Lacavera did something no other Canadian telecom boss has done: he asked cellular customers what they want in a wireless carrier.
The response was bigger than he ever imagined. In one week, the website he created, WirelessSoapbox.com, got more than 6,000 suggestions for his future wireless network.
Globalive Communications Corp., a potential new Canadian wireless provider, is hoping to snare 1.5 million customers in the first three years after a proposed launch of wireless services in the latter of half of next year.
The parent of the Yak long distance service, which bid $442 million on wireless spectrum across the country in a recent government auction, plans to reach the goal by focusing on cheaper pre-paid wireless plans in an apparent bid to woo customers away from existing players and sign up others that don’t yet have cell phones.
Canadian wireless entrant Globalive Communication Corp. aims to capture 1.5 million cellphone customers within three years after it launches service in the "late spring" of 2009, the company said on Thursday.
In the first major public remarks made since Industry Canada's spectrum auction, Naguib Sawiris said the potential is there to penetrate Canada's existing "cozy" wireless industry. Mr. Sawiris is chief executive of Egypt-based Orascom Telecom. Orascom has a 65% equity stake but a 20% voting equity in Globalive.
"A cell company who (appears to) care about their potential customers. Perhaps they looked at the issues that Rogers (the iPhone), Bell (incoming text messaging charges) and Telus (incoming text messaging charges and screwing over their EVDO users by yanking their unlimited plans) have gotten themselves into and decided not to be like them. If so, that’s a great change from what Canadians are used to..."
Canadians, it’s your turn: Website gives Canadians a forum to reveal what they desire from the country’s next major wireless provider
Globalive CEO to be an active participant in online forum
TORONTO – September 4, 2008 – Today, Globalive Wireless Management Corp, took a very unique approach in becoming Canada’s next major wireless provider by asking Canadians to share their thoughts, ideas and opinions about wireless services on a first-of-its-kind website, www.WirelessSoapbox.com.
“WirelessSoapbox.com is about starting a dialogue with people who care about wireless in this country and are invested in making sure the next provider gets it right!”, said Anthony Lacavera, Chairman and CEO of Globalive. “We can’t give Canadians the best new wireless service unless we’ve explored their likes, dislikes and what they want to see differently from Canada’s next wireless provider.”
“We’re asking everyone with an opinion on wireless to get up on our ‘wireless soapbox’ and we plan to use that cross-country intelligence to build a smarter and more informed new Canadian wireless company.”
Through www.WirelessSoapbox.com, Globalive is hoping to hear from a wide range of Canadians on everything from ‘what their ideal cell phone plan looks like’ to their ‘biggest pet peeve about their monthly cell phone bill’. Globalive is also hoping to hear from technically savvy ‘arm-chair engineers’ who are interested in sharing their advice on network design and architecture, wireless vendors and supplier relationships.
Distinguishing themselves further from competitive phone companies, Chairman and CEO, Lacavera, will be an active participant in the online forum discussions. In addition to the forum, www.WirelessSoapbox.com will also feature a blog, surveys, quick polls, RSS feeds, widgets and have an off-site presence including Facebook and Twitter.
The idea for the unique, new website emerged organically: “After the end of the wireless auction, I spent days calling customers from Vancouver to St. John’s to ask how they felt about their cell phone service and I was amazed at how much people had to say,” said Anthony Lacavera, Chairman and CEO of Globalive. “Wireless is an issue that Canadians are extremely passionate about because they have a true stake in it.
Globalive Wireless Management Corp. was successfully declared a provisional winner in Industry Canada’s recent wireless spectrum auction (Advanced Wireless Services Band) which concluded May 27, 2008. They have now paid in full for those licenses and provisionally, have acquired sufficient spectrum to build a new cross country wireless network (with the exception of Quebec) that will provide more choice and feature rich offerings to Canadians.
The auction was initiated by the federal government to increase competition in Canada’s wireless market. The reasons that led to the auction include:
• Higher prices- Canadians pay an average of 60% more for mobile wireless services than Americans according to the Telecommunications Policy Review Panel (Final Report, March 22, 2006)
• Fewer services – Canadians are losing out on high-tech mobile services. These services are becoming an integral part of modern business life (such as lightning fast internet connections, video-conferencing, video and TV steaming, and interactive application sharing) are not being introduced in Canada at the same rate as the rest of the world
• Low penetration - Only 58% of Canadians have a wireless device, such as a phone, compared to the United States where more than 77% have a wireless device and other industrialized countries, such as the UK and Hong Kong, where the number is over 100% (The Economist’s Pocket World in Figures, 2007 edition)
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About Globalive
Globalive Communications Corp., based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, has grown rapidly to become a leading provider of telecommunications solutions globally. Globalive develops and delivers innovative applications and first-rate tailored telecommunications services to a wide range of clients in the consumer, enterprise and hospitality segments worldwide. Globalive services over one million customers with brands such as Yak, Canopco and One Connect.
Globalive Wireless Management Corp.’s ownership includes leading international wireless operator Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E.
For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:
Lindsay Mattick Davidson
Narrative Advocacy Media
Office 416 644-4123 cell 416 908 7360
Lindsay.mattick@narrativeadvocacy.com
TORONTO -- Globalive Communications Corp., the privately held telecom firm poised to become Canada's fourth national wireless telecom provider, is considering offering flat-rate voice and data services as it prepares to fight the country's Big Three carriers for market share.
"We're pretty excited at this point about the potential for flat-rate plans," Globalive chief executive Anthony Lacavera told Reuters in an interview. The company will aim to serve small and medium business clients, as well as the consumer market, through "at least" two brands, he said.
Globalive Wireless Management Corp. has, thus far, secured wireless spectrum across Canada (excluding Quebec), which makes it likely to become Canada’s next wireless carrier. Although not entirely national due to the exclusion of Quebec, the company’s $442 million investment should be significant enough to allow Globalive to become a major presence within the majority of the Canadian market.
The Advanced Wireless Spectrum Auction, which is currently wrapping up, auctions off the airwaves required for cellular services to operate. For the first time, Industry Canada set aside spectrum for new carriers to bid on, fueled by the lack of competition in the Canadian wireless space, and resulting high prices that Canadians pay for services.
The federal government's $4.25 billion wireless spectrum sale will change Canada's cellphone industry forever, Industry Minister Jim Prentice said Tuesday.
Prentice said the auction was meant to help create more competition in the cellphone industry so that Canadians will see a reduction in costs and an improvement in services.
The minister said he's received estimates that it could take up to a year to see more competition hit the marketplace.
Anthony Lacavera's crisp, expensive suit stood in stark contrast to the stale room littered with computer monitors, pizza boxes and empty pop cans. The men and women working in this small room-turned-war room on the top floor of a 12-storey building in downtown Toronto paused every half-hour or so to focus on a large plasma monitor that displayed a colour-coded map of Canada and the latest results in Industry Canada's wireless spectrum auction.