WIND Mobile Hopeful Liberals Will Support Wireless Competition

Wind Mobile CEO Alek Krstajic is optimistic that the Liberal government will continue to support small wireless players as the Conservative government did, reports the Globe and Mail. Meanwhile, he won’t stand and wait for the cavalry to arrive, as he has big plans to make Wind Mobile’s service more appealing.

According to Krstajic, Wind’s biggest priorities right now are putting strong customer-service policies in place, improving its 3G network, and starting to build the much needed next-generation LTE network.

He doesn’t exclude a public offering: “not next year; we’ll probably start looking the year after,” he said, but the right valuation is the keyword here. Meanwhile the carrier will be finalizing a financing contract with a network equipment vendor within weeks.

But before it focuses on the LTE network, it will deploy some of the spectrum acquired from Mobilicity out west, he said. “By the end of 2016 or beginning of 2017, I think the Wind experience is going to be profoundly different than it is today”, he added.

“A lot of our customers stay with us because the value is really compelling and they’re price-sensitive. But I don’t think there are any customers – even at Rogers, Bell or Telus – who wouldn’t say, ‘I wish I had a more robust network.’”

You may recall from quarterly earnings that incumbents’ ARPUs are in the region of $60. Wind’s, on the other hand, is in the mid-$30 dollar range heading towards the mid-40s.

When asked about a possible partnership with Videotron, he said: “We’d be open to having a conversation about the spectrum being rolled in, but that wouldn’t give them control of the organization. I think we could see wanting to buy the spectrum, but I don’t think there’s a need to go and hurry and do that now.”