Wind Mobile hits 100,000 subscribers

Wind Mobilehad signed up100,000 Canadian subscribersas ofJuly, seven months after launching, its primary financial backer reported Thursday.

Cairo-based Orascom Telecom Holding SAEalso reported its first quarterly net loss. It was$41.4 million USin the red for the quarter ending June 30,the companysaid in a statement distributed by the Regulatory News Service.

Wind chairman Anthony Lacavera said in an interview that the 100,000-customer mark was reached in early July, and that the number represents net additions. He did not disclose what the gross customer numbers were, but said Wind added customers at double the rate of its big rivals Bell, Rogers and Telus inside the markets that it operates in.

The reported numbers also don't include Vancouver, where Wind launched in June, he said.

"That shows how much Canadians are voting with their feet,"Lacavera said. "We're clearly really having an impact now."

Lacavera said Wind is on track to reach its goal of 1.5 million customers in its first three years, as the company is adding stores and expanding its coverage footprint. The company offers service in Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa, Edmonton and Vancouver.

Wind is facing stiff competition, however, not only from Bell, Rogers and Telus, but also fellow new wireless carriers Mobilicity and Public Mobile. Mobilicity launched similar lower-priced plans in Toronto in May and plans to expand to the other cities Wind operates in this year. Public Mobile offers service in Toronto and Montreal.

The big three incumbents are also reacting to the new companies with their own lower-priced services. Rogers last month launched a new brand, called Chatr, to compete with the new carriers and Bell plans to reposition its Solo brand this month to offer similar plans.

Chatr's launch drew criticismfrom Public Mobile and Mobilicity, whose chairman, John Bitove, said he would challenge Rogers through a complaint withthe Competition Bureau.

Lacavera said he is taking a different stance, and that he welcomes the competition which was the government's whole plan when it cleared the way for new carriers to enter the market in 2007.

"I love it. I'm totally on the other end of the spectrum from Mobilicity and Public and the whining and complaining about these guys," he said."I think that's nonsense. If you enter the market, be prepared to compete."

Wind's primary backer Orascom, meanwhile,said itrecorded $120 million in unrealized foreign exchange losses, largely due to the appreciation of the U.S. dollar against the Egyptian pound. The company's revenues were $1.06 billion, down from $1.29 billion a year earlier, when the company reported a profit of $121.2 million.

The lossescame as the company reported 18 per cent growth in subscribers compared to the same period last year, to 99 million worldwide.

Orascomalso reported that it is in talks with Vimpelcom, a Russian company that is looking to acquire a majority stake in Orascom as well as Wind in Italy.

Lacavera said his company, Globalive Communications, holds the licence to use the Wind brand name in Canada, and that he wouldn't expect that to change in the event of a change of ownership at Orascom.

Last year, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission refused to allow Wind to start up on the grounds that its control structure had too much foreign influence, due to Orascom's financial stake, which ran counter to Canadian ownership restrictions.

Industry Minister Tony Clement stepped in last December and overruled the CRTC, clearing the way for the company to launch.