Rogers to introduce new discount wireless brand

The prepaid market seems to work a bit differently in American than in Canada. In America you have your major network, which basically offer their own prepaid service. Sprint is the only exception, though it fully owns its two major prepaid brands, Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile. The rest carry prepaid under their own brands. But then there are MVNOs, carriers that rent space on their networks. An MVNO typically offers a discount rate on wireless, since it buys it wholesale from the major carrier and resells it on a prepaid basis to customers. Notably, we’ve seen Straight Talk make clear its presence on the Verizon network. In Canada, however, it’s usually the large carrier itself launching discount brands. All of the Big Three — Rogers, Telus, and Bell — have their own discount brands. According to Telecommunications Industry News, Rogers is aiming for another low-cost entrant, this one reportedly dubbed chat.r.

The rumored plans, unsurprisingly, will include the option for unlimited talk and text, a new fad that has taken the prepaid market by storm, both north and south of the border. There should also be data involved, though since we don’t have many details now we really don’t know what any of the plans will entail.

This new venture is clearly aimed at the new market entrants, including Public Mobile, Mobilicity, and WIND. What I’m wondering is where this leaves Rogers’ other discount brand, Fido. Perhaps that will turn into a higher end offering. They have, after all, carried BlackBerry and other advanced phones.

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1. Rogers officially launches chatr discount prepaid brand | Prepaid Reviews Says
   

   [...] you may want to subscribe to the the feed.Well, that moved quickly. On Wednesday we wrote about a possible new prepaid brand from Rogers Wireless. Late yesterday Boy Genius Report pointed us towards a press release from [...]

   
   Posted on July 1st, 2010 at 10:39 am

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