On March 3rd 2010 WIND Mobile, the first of the new Canadian wireless entrants to launch service, announced a significant reorganization. The company has been ‘in business’ for less than three months since its Toronto launch, 16 December 2009. The company also launched in Calgary on 18 December, and in Edmonton on 25 February 2010.
A major corporate reorganization this soon suggests that the company’s expected results have not been met. Certainly reports of network faults, limited and expensive handset selection, e-commerce challenges, and a small retail presence have dampened some consumer enthusiasm for this new entrant’s services. This paper will consider what may have gone wrong. What lessons are there from the WIND launch? What might the other new entrants learn from WIND’s travails?
We think that there are four main lessons:

*

*

*

*

WIND is not out of the race. It is still a potent force. It holds the only (near) national license, is building a state-of-the-art network and has an experienced management team. Moreover, the impending changes in Canada’s foreign ownership rules should make for tighter integration with the Orascom mothership. The other new entrants, though, can learn much from WIND’s launch lessons and govern themselves accordingly.