WIND Mobile Service Now Available Underground on the Canada Line [u]

For WIND Mobile customers in Metro Vancouver that commute on the Canada Line, you should now have vastly improved wireless service as the carrier has settled a nearly three-year battle to bring coverage to underground tunnels and stations of the rapid transit line.

According to Business in Vancouver, WIND Mobile now has service throughout the underground portions of the Canada Line (tunnels and mezzanines), which links Richmond to downtown Vancouver, as of today.

WIND Mobile’s Twitter account first tweeted out the news this morning:

TELUS won the contract back in 2008 to bring wireless coverage (and legally provide access to three other carriers) to underground portions of the Canada Line and spent over $2 million on infrastructure doing so.

Rogers and Bell signed agreements with TELUS for access to the underground wireless network, but WIND Mobile took their fight to the CRTC to intervene, as they wanted access to build their own network instead, over claims the incumbent’s fees for access were too expensive.

WIND Mobile’s arrangements to bring wireless access to the Canada Line are unclear (most likely a deal was finally negotiated with TELUS), but as of now, wireless service should be live for customers along the rapid transit line.

Last fall, WIND Mobile announced bigger plans for BC, as it said expansion plans were in the works for Victoria, Kelowna and Abbotsford. More recently, the company won AWS-3 spectrum in BC, Alberta and Ontario, which CEO Anthony Lacavera said will help launch an LTE network, to compete against the Big 3.

Update: WIND Mobile confirmed to us via email they have joined TELUS infrastructure to provide wireless service for the Canada Line. So in other words, renegotiations started and a deal was made.

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