Orascom Telecom Dept: But this is the new normal for the $16-billion Canadian wireless sector. Ambitious new mobile carriers are popping up in any hole-in-the-wall retail space they can find–abandoned fast-food outlets, corner stores, laundromats. It’s already happened in the Toronto area, and is now unfolding in major cities across the country, according to Globe And Mail. Mobilicity chairman John Bitove–best known as the head of Priszm LP, which owns more than 400 KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut restaurants, and as the guy who launched XM Canada satellite radio–is expecting to do a brisk business slinging smart phones from Mobilicity’s new store. It is the first of 37 across Toronto, all painted in the company’s pink and green motif. “My real estate guy found it for me,” Bitove says, as his guests dive into buckets of KFC. “It’s perfect.” Over Bitove’s shoulder is a boarded-up drive-through window. Even that has marketing potential for a company desperate to make a splash. “Drive-thru bill payments!” Bitove exclaims. “We’ll be the first in Canada.” With those dramatic words–as though we were witnessing man’s first steps on the moon–Dave Dobbin, chief executive officer of Mobilicity, officially opened his new wireless provider’s flagship retail store. It was an odd place for such a grand proclamation: a converted Mr. Sub restaurant just off Highway 401, in the suburban reaches of Scarborough, Ontario. Wind Mobile, backed by Egyptian giant Orascom Telecom, launched its service in Toronto and Calgary last December, and has been branching out to other large cities over the past few months. Mobilicity formerly known as DAVE Wireless followed in early May with its Toronto launch; it too will soon spread to other cities. Then came Public Mobile, which lists the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, Peter Munk and U.S. private equity firms among its investors. As
reported in the news.
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@t private equity firms, dave dobbin
24.6.10
