Fido Solutions
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| Type | Subsidiary of Rogers Wireless |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1996 |
| Key people | Sylvain Roy, Senior Vice President and General Manager |
| Industry | Wireless Services |
| Products | EDGE, GPRS, GSM, HSDPA, Wireless Data Services, Two way messaging |
| Website | www.fido.ca |
Fido Solutions, formerly known as Microcell Telecommunications is a Canadian cellular telephone service provider. Since November 2004, Fido is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rogers Wireless. Fido was the first carrier in Canada to launch a GSM-based network and the first wireless service provider in North America to offer General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) on its network. Fido ranked the "highest in customer satisfaction among contract service providers" in Canada according to the J. D. Power and Associates 2007 Canadian Wireless Customer Satisfaction Study.[1]
Fido was unique in that they offered plans with unlimited voice and/or data transfer to their customers. When Rogers purchased Fido, they ceased offering such plans and only allowed previous customers to keep these plans as long as they sign an agreement.
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[edit] Background
The original development of Fido was funded in part by T-Mobile International. In November 2004, Microcell was bought out by the other competing GSM carrier, Rogers Wireless, for an estimated $1.4 billion. The company's name was changed to Fido Solutions shortly thereafter. Fido has retained its data roaming service with T-Mobile.
[edit] Network
The Fido network originally ran solely on GSM 1900 and offered coverage in major urban areas in Canada. Since the acquisition of Fido by Rogers Wireless in 2004, Rogers integrated the networks, giving Fido customers additional coverage and access to GSM 850.
[edit] Services
Fido was the first Canadian mobile service provider to bill airtime by the second, as opposed to the more traditional per-minute scheme used by other providers. Clearnet Communications joined the Canadian Wireless Market with an Urban Focus similar to Fido and also offered per second billing. Shortly after the introduction of Fido and Clearnet, Rogers AT&T (now Rogers Wireless), Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility also started offering per second billing. Telus acquired Clearnet in 2000 and the three major cellular providers in Canada reverted back to per-minute billing in the summer of 2002. In 2005, Solo Mobile began directly competing against Fido and also bill by the second. Most recently, Telus added the Koodo Mobile brand as a competitor to Solo & Fido.
On November 4th, 2008 Fido announced a re-branding and subsequent relaunch of their services in an attempt to keep up with Koodo Mobile's success. Fido was being repositioned by its parent company (Rogers Communications) as its discount wireless brand. The "new" Fido targets the roughly 35% of Canadians who still do not have a mobile phone and of course, existing users on other networks. 2 Growth of wireless adoption rates in Canada have been pegged by both consumers and industry experts as one of the lowest in the industrialized world3. With the spectrum auctions over and the incoming new competitors, Fido wanted to position itself to respond accurately to the demands of the marketplace. In doing so, they abolished the much despised "System access fee" and "E911" charges levied to customers over the years, though existing Fido customers on contract will continue to pay those fees unless they change their plan to a newer one4. Rogers customers can migrate to Fido and vice versa, though fees may apply depending on the type of migration. They also have scaled back the number of phones offered, keeping a few higher ends models and PDAs (iPhone 3G, Samsung Jack).
Fido also completely redesigned their rate plan offerings, starting at $15 per month, with a renewed emphasis on per second billing plus a new focus on having a tiered offering of anytime minutes coupled with unlimited local nights and weekends starting at 7 PM, a full 2 hours earlier than most of the other main providers across all plans. Text messaging is also a new focus and every new Fido plan includes some allotment of sent texts (incoming are free). In fact, most plans include unlimited texting which costs $10 per month on other carriers. Fido also offers heavy urban users "FullFido" plans which include a set of anytime minutes and unlimited texting. A plethora of add-on options are available, ranging from basics such as call display, voicemail to a variety of long distance plans to mobile web and 5 PM early evenings. For those that use a data device, 4 data packs are available, running 2 MB for $15, 500MB for $25, 1 GB for $30 and 3 GB for $60. Activation fees still apply but vary in amount based on the type of customer. Customers can also save as much as 15% when combined with any applicable Rogers services. However, their new promotion, started April 1 2009, with any monthly plan of $25 or above no system activation fee will be applied. Fido has also retained its prepaid offerings, offering 4 levels of top up $ amounts and customization options (unlimited incoming calls and unlimited nights and weekends that start at 6 PM). Prepaid calls are billed by the minute and airtime cards are valid for either 30 or 60 days depending on what dollar amount is purchased. The core goal of these changes are to achieve flexibility and ease of use for its customers5.
Fido is currently the only company to offer an Over-the-Counter exchange for phones that fail during the manufacturer's one year warranty period (with a refurbished unit after the 15 day return period). Fido also formalized the upgrade process for newer phones by offering "Fido Dollars", equivalent to 5% of customer revenues, which can be used towards the purchase of a new handset at any time even when purchasing a phone with a new agreement. Fido dollars can be used when renewing service with a new agreement. Other than Virgin Mobile (prepaid service), they are the second company in Canada to include a "minute tracker" system free of charge with every monthly plan, which sends a text message to customers when they reach 75% and 100% of the minutes included in their monthly package.
[edit] References
[2] "Fido to ramp up down market push." Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/530677
[3] "Ring in the new - Canadian cell phone users big "winners" of wireless spectrum auction." ITbusiness.ca: http://www.itbusiness.ca/IT/client/en/home/News.asp?id=49258&PageMem=3
[4] "Rogers relaunches Fido without system access fee." CBC.ca: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/11/04/tech-rogers.html
[5] Fido Monthly Plans. http://fido.ca/web/page/portal/Fido/MonthlyPlans?forwardTo=monthlyPlans
[edit] External links
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