[LINK] "Wind Mobile launches LTE service and rebrands as Freedom Mobile"

[rfmcdonald]

CBC explains why, among other things, the WIND app on my phone changed names the last time I updated. If this leads to better service, I'll be happy.

Wind Mobile is rebranding itself as Freedom Mobile and adding to its old 3G network with an LTE network that should be available in every market where it operates by August.

The company, which was acquired last year by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, has grown to roughly one million customers since its launch under foreign ownership in late 2008.

The company offers discounted mobile service in major urban centres, but on an inferior spectrum band that has been plagued by slow or dropped signals.

The new LTE service, to be first rolled out in Toronto and Vancouver on Nov. 27 and then everywhere else the company operates by the fall of 2017, could change all that.

Customers' bills could be changing too. Wind plans range between $25 and $50 a month for all-inclusive texting, talk and data plans that offer far more downloading capability than the big three — but on a network that makes it hard to ever take advantage of those numbers due to spotty service.