Bell to launch low-cost Lucky Mobile

TORONTO BCE Inc. is launching a new low-cost wireless carrier called Lucky Mobile.

Bell revealed its new prepaid brand on Friday, a move that lets it compete against its top rivals for what it says is “fast-growing demand” for cheaper mobile options from customers such as new Canadians, seniors and students.

In a release, Bell said Lucky Mobile will offer talk and text plans starting at $20 per month in Ontario, Alberta and B.C. starting next week. The plans are contract-free and available with no credit check for customers that bring their own devices or buy devices starting at $60.

Lucky Mobile marks Bell’s splashy re-entrance into the lowcost market, a space where Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. already compete under the brands Chatr and Public Mobile. Both offer prepaid wireless service without contracts at similar price points to Lucky.

Bell used to run a low-cost prepaid carrier called Solo Mobile, but it slowly discontinued the brand after it acquired Virgin Mobile in 2009. Virgin competes with Rogers’s and Telus’s secondtier brands Fido and Koodo, all of which offer postpaid services. Postpaid plans earn far more revenue from customers with premium smartphones on two-year contracts with higher data allotments.

Prepaid plans made up only 13 per cent of Canada’s wireless market in 2016, a proportion that has steadily decreased over the past five years, according to the latest data from the telecom regulator. Still, the wireless market grew to more than 30 million subscriptions last year, with all carriers celebrating a growing user base they credited in part to immigration.