Montreal-based telecom company Cogeco plans to bring wireless service to Canada after launching mobile service in 13 U.S. states last year.
According to the Canadian Press, the company said it has “all the building blocks” in place to start offering wireless services in Ontario and Quebec, where it offers broadband internet. The company plans to launch service in the “coming quarters.”
“We’ve now rolled out Breezeline mobile, and our Canadian wireless effort is well on track to go to market over the coming quarters,” president and CEO Frédéric Perron said during the company’s Q1 earnings call on Tuesday.
Cogeco launched its Breezeline Mobile wireless brand across 13 U.S. states, where it also offers internet services. Breezeline bundles mobile with internet, so customers need to get an internet package in order to add mobile services. At the time, Cogeco said it planned to expand those services to Canada and similarly bundle the service with internet.
The company plans to leverage Canada’s mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) framework, which allows wireless providers to offer services that run on the networks of incumbent players like Bell, Rogers and Telus. In August, Cogeco signed deals with a national wireless network operator and with Eastlink, which is based in Nova Scotia.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) opted to go with a facilities-based MVNO model back in 2021, and Canadians have started to see the fruit of that decision over the last couple of years. For example, we’ve seen Quebecor, which owns the Videotron, Freedom Mobile and Fizz Mobile wireless brands, leverage the MVNO framework to expand service into new provinces.
However, the MVNO framework also requires that regional providers build their own networks in the service areas where they use incumbent networks within seven years.
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