Can paying for wireless service really be as easy as paying for broadband Internet or a landline phone? Canada's latest wireless carrier, formerly-known-as-DAVE-Wireless-but-now-known-as-Mobilicity, hopes to accomplish just that.

"‘Do I have to add something on to get what I want?'" says Sara Moore, Vice President of Marketing at Mobilicity, mimicking a typical consumer question about wireless service. "'Is it incoming or outgoing? Have I gone over that bucket of messages and/or minutes?,' Who worries about those things when they use the Internet at home? Who worries about those things when they're on their home phone? We think that wireless can be that simple."

As the second new wireless carrier to enter the Canadian market, Mobilicity (pronounced "mobill-iss-ity"), represents a combination of the words "mobile" and "simplicity", with the benefit of "city" added in for good measure.

Set to launch this Spring, it comes as no surprise that simplistic services will be the underlying theme behind Mobilicity's plans. Moore points out that, with other carriers, some features come in buckets, some are omitted. "Some things if you want, you have to add it on," she explains. "You might start with a $15 plan, but then you add two or three things in for $5. There's an opportunity to come in, truly simplify [wireless service], and take out the complications."

One might infer from this that Mobilicity's plans will be all-encompassing: one price that truly includes everything with only very specific add-ons. Unfortunately, the company hasn't disclosed specifics of the plans just yet, so we'll hold tight until further information is made available.

What we do know is that the company will offer no contracts, no credit checks, and unlimited calling and data. A selection of smartphones will be available from brands like Research in Motion (RIM) and Nokia; as well USB Internet sticks, and possibly even netbooks.

As the "city" part of the name implies, Mobilicity service will roll out in major urban cities one by one, starting with Toronto this Spring, and moving into Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa later this year. Mobilicity will have its own stores, as well as a dealer network and store-within-store concepts. "It'll be a whole assortment," says Dave Dobbin, President. "We will be where people want to buy phones."

Mobilicity is launching on the heels of WIND Mobile, another new wireless carrier that lit up its services in Toronto and Calgary in late December. But oddly, Mobilicity doesn't view WIND as its competition.

"The carriers coming in have zero per cent marketshare," says Dobbin, "so I don't understand why anyone thinks they're our competition. They've got zero, we've got zero. The competition is the incumbents in this country."

By incumbents, Dobbin is referring to Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless, and Telus Mobility; and probably to a lesser degree their "discount" counterparts, including Virgin, Solo, Fido, and Koodo. Indeed it has been a three-horse race for many years, but the new carriers are poised to really shake things up.

Competitor or not, by the time Mobilicity services are up and running, WIND will have already been in the market for at least four or five months. But Mobilicity feels that its simple services are what will really set it apart from the others, WIND included.

"Mobilicity will kick the value equation up a notch this Spring," Dobbin enthuses.

"Launching a business is like having a baby," mused John Bitove, Chairman, when he addressed the media at a launch event this morning. "Usually you leave the hospital with the baby, but we wanted to take our time, do some research, look at the competitive set, and come up with a name that we thought was great for this business."

We all know babies are expensive, but they reap many rewards. DAVE is certainly confident that its Mobilicity baby will do just the same. It all starts with the name, of course. And Mobilicity does have a nice ring to it.

[John Bitove, Chairman, Sara Moore, V.P., Marketing, & Dave Dobbin, President, talk to Marketnews about the new Mobilicity brand and upcoming services.]

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