Fido Solutions

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Fido Solutions

Type	Subsidiary of Rogers Wireless
Founded	December 1996
Key people	Sylvain Roy, Senior Vice President and General Manager
Industry	Wireless Services
Products	EDGE, GPRS, GSM, HSDPA, HSUPA, 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.

Background

Fido logo used until November 4th 2008

The original development of Fido was funded in part by T-Mobile International. Fido was the first provider in Canada to offer a network with the GSM standard. 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.

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. Currently the Fido Network consists of mainly GSM 850 MHz with 1900 MHz being deployed on less towers. Fido has 3G over UMTS 850 in urban areas, UMTS 1900 being deployed in some cities and rural areas.

Fido's 3G network currently supports HSDPA 7.2Mbps and HSUPA 2.0Mbps in most major cities across Canada. The Rogers Wireless rollout of HSPA+ at 21.2Mbps is also supported by Fido. No devices offered by Fido currently support this standard.

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.^{[citation needed]} 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 4, 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.^{[not in citation given]}

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.

Decommissioned Services

Fido once offered a wide range of products and services which are no longer avialable on the market. Unlimited Access Plans were once offered on the network before the Rogers Wireless buyout. The Danger Hiptop was a phone offered on the market similar to the T-Mobile Sidekick. The Danger Servers from Fido were Decommissioned in 2009, ending all grandfathered Hiptops data service. Fax Messaging was once included in the Fido Plus or Business messaging service, for phones that supported Fax Mail. This service was Decommissioned on September 22, 2009, all customers with a fax number were allowed to port it out by December 22, 2009 if they wished. Couples plans were Decommissioned on November 3, 2009 when Fido re-branded to The New Fido. Customers could now only sign up on plans without the monthly System Access Fee, which did not include the choice of a couples package. MobileTV was Decommissioned in 2009 due to the lack of subscribers to the service. It offered 25+ channels over the 3G UMTS network. US Roaming was removed from the Unlimited Data plans offered from Microcell Communications. Previously customers had unlimited access to the internet on a GPRS Internet Modem or on their mobile phone. The Classic CityFido was removed from market immediately after the Rogers Wireless buyout, mainly due to the fact that an unlimited service was offered for such a low price. This hurt the market share of TELUS and Rogers in the select cities it was offered in. Customers who continue to extend their contract can keep the monthly rate, but cannot get hadware subsidy on a new handset.

Fido Unlimited Plans from Microcell Communications

Data Access Options

Rogers and Fido have been criticized for not having an unlimited data plan like their competitors, but did release a $30 for 6GB option for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS launches. Another plan launched in the past was $80 for 8GB. The $30 for 6GB promotion was not available for the 3G Internet Stick plans.

Handset Lineup

Updated October 18, 2009

Rumored / Cancelled Devices

See also

• List of Canadian mobile phone companies

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

External links

• Fido Official Website
• Rogers Wireless, Inc. (Fido's Parent Company)