Opportunity looms for the Canadian kin of PageMart Inc. and Paging Network Inc. Both companies recently activated service in Canada where market penetration is only 3 percent, or about 1 million people.
“Paging has been a `me too’ product,” said Rob Graham, vice president sales and marketing for PageMart Canada Ltd. in Toronto. Cellular operators Mobility Canada and Rogers Cantel Mobile Inc., have been the country’s leading paging providers.
“The main competitors in Canada have a day job,” said Garry Fitzgerald, president of Paging Network of Canada Inc., also based in Toronto. “Paging is a secondary business to them. Their main focus and investment has been in their core business.” In November, the Yankee Group of Boston reported Mobility Canada held a 42.3 percent share of the paging market while Cantel had 17.6 percent and TeleZone 3.5 percent. The other 37 percent is held by 250 providers, said Graham.
Paging service has been expensive in Canada compared with the United States, said Graham, which may have contributed to the low penetration rate. Sources estimate between 12 percent and 14 percent of the U.S. population use pagers.
Fitzgerald said Canada’s new paging operators are stimulating competition, which already has shown benefit in the market. The outlook isn’t for winners and losers, but widespread expansion for many players in an underserved market, explained Fitzgerald. He said factors including Canada’s proximity to the United States, population of more than 28 million, volume of commerce and other characteristics present big opportunity for paging carriers.
Thus far, PageMart has turned on nationwide service in every major Canadian market, said Graham. Local numeric service starts at $5 per month, and alphanumeric starts at $11 per month. For North American coverage, numeric costs $46 per month, and alphanumeric costs $100. Users can roam seamlessly across the Canada/U.S. border, said Graham.
Historically, between 20 percent and 25 percent of paging subscribers in Canada have used alphanumeric service, said Graham. But he expects numeric to increase in popularity among new consumer users.
The company is offering Pick-Your-Cities, a plan that allows subscribers to select the cities where they want coverage; and infoRoam, whereby alphanumeric users can roam “on demand” within the company’s coverage area for $20 on top of their base monthly rate. Users dial into the system, specify the area code of their travel and the time to start service, said Graham. The company also is marketing Personal800, an 800-number service that costs $10 per month for 50 calls to a PageMart user anywhere in the United States or Canada.
Graham said PageMart will distribute products and services via direct sales, dealers, agents and resellers. The company is marketing pagers by Motorola Inc. and Panasonic. PageMart is first in Canada to activate Motorola’s FLEX-based protocol, said Graham. PageNet is using FLEX as well.
PageNet is offering local/regional service in top Canadian cities including Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver and their surrounding areas. The company plans to start national roaming capability by summer, which will include coverage in all major centers and of about 70 percent of Canada’s population, said Fitzgerald.
Local/regional service starts at $10 per month for numeric and $20 per month for alphanumeric. Costs for nationwide service will start at $20 per month for numeric and $30 for alphanumeric. PageNet soon plans to offer an option where customers can receive pages in all of Canada and the United States. A limited cross-border plan is expected to start later this year, said Fitzgerald. For example, a user may need coverage in Vancouver, British Columbia and Seattle or Windsor, Ontario and Detroit.
“It will be in our view a unique plan and distinct competitive advantage,” said Fitzgerald.
The company plans to launch two-way messaging in early 1997, on the heels of PageNet’s U.S. narrowband personal communications services deployment. PageMart Canada is not licensed for narrowband PCS. The company is a subsidiary of Dallas-based PageNet. The Canadian network is owned by Madison Telecommunications Inc., a joint venture of PageNet and Madison Venture Corp.
Majority owners in PageMart Canada are Toronto Dominion Capital Group and Working Ventures Canadian Fund Inc. PageMart International, a subsidiary of Dallas-based PageMart Inc., owns a minority stake.
