Verizon to acquire Wind Mobile?

FP is reporting that Verizon is in talks to purchase Wind Mobile.

My feelings on this are mixed. On the one hand, I haven't been too pleased with Wind Mobile as of late. They've got connectivity issues and their customer support is just horrible (another company using tech support out of India). That said, their pricing keeps me as a customer.

So a take-over by Verizon would be good in that quality of service would likely increase and it would ensure that Wind continues to offer competitive prices for Canadians (offsetting the costs of Rogers and Bell, who charge customers the most they possibly can get away with).

On the down side though Verizon is now synonymous to me with the NSA (National Security Agency) in the US.

If Wind Mobile servers suddenly become Verizon servers are all my phone calls and GPS data being logged and stored by the US government? Not that I have anything to hide, but on principle I couldn't support a company that was spying on me (especially if they don't tell me they are doing it).

If Verizon were to buy Wind Mobile it would definitely be interesting as it would be the first big, US brand to enter the Canadian telecoms market. It will be interesting to see whether Verizon simply pushes US-style marketing or whether they are able to market with nuance to the Canadian customer and culture.

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