The first time I heard about this story, my assumption was that you would get some long distance minutes tacked onto your monthly plan for free when you sign up for service with Wind Mobile. That’s not the case. Instead, customers can waltz into Wind “mobile phone booths” and make a long distance call in the store.

You don’t sign a contract. You don’t agree to sign up for service. You just ask to use the phone the same way you would when your regular cell phone runs out of juice and you ask the local diner if you can borrow the phone to call a cab. The kicker is that Wind is a-okay with you doing long distance on that free call… for up to five minutes.

This free service is being offered in Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver, which presumably also includes the Wind kiosks inside of Blockbuster locations. These same stores are also offering a gift wrapping service too. I wonder how they’d feel about wrapping up a shiny new Telus phone for your cousin?

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Public Mobile "Unlimited" bus shelter ad.

The Canadian wireless climate is about to undergo another shakeup. The launch of Wind Mobile opened up the floodgates to some more competition and now another contender is on the way. Public Mobile has already started some guerilla marketing and it seems that it will be launching with free long distance.

If you’ve looked around some towns, you may have seen some ads at bus shelters and other locations that simply say “unlimited.” There is no branding, but we’re led to believe that they’re for Public Mobile. In case you’re not as familiar, Public Mobile is going to be a new wireless carrier in Canada.

So, what does this whole “unlimited” business mean? According to some sources, you will be given free Canadian long distance for life if you keep your account in good standing and you move over to Public Mobile on launch day: May 15th.  However, the Public Mobile website only shows “Unlimited Talk and Text” on their $40 plan, if they do plan to copy other providers and offer free LD would definitely help their launch strategy.

Public Mobile will only be available in Ontario and Quebec at launch, their handset offering will need to go beyond the ZTE C78 they’ve listed on their website if they want to stick around.

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The GSM-based solution is launching for the United States and U.K., with Europe, Australia, Hong Kong and South Africa on the 2010 timeline.

An unlocked GSM phone will be required, just pop in the Truphone SIM card and you’ll be making calls at around 12 cents per minute, when compared to 99 cents and $1.29 per minute for roaming on AT&T and other GSM-based wireless carriers.

Here are some features and benefits from their press release that the Truphone Local Anywhere will offer:

* Local calling rates in Truphone countries: With Truphone Local Anywhere, international travellers enjoy rates that are a fraction of standard roaming fees. For example, AT&T subscribers roaming in the U.K. pay between 99 cents and $1.29 per minute(1), depending on their calling plans, but from only 12 cents per minute with Truphone Local Rates.

* Local contact numbers in Truphone countries: Local numbers mean people can call you on your mobile at local rates for them – at no cost to you.

* Low-cost international calling: Great rates to make international calls at home or abroad, offering savings of up to 90 percent over standard mobile operator charges.

*Low-cost roaming: Great rates when roaming in non-Truphone countries offering savings of up to 40 percent over standard mobile operator charges.

*Keep in touch with friends and family by not only making low-cost calls back home, but also allowing them to call you on a local number. U.S. expatriates settled in the UK can save more than 90 percent when they call home for an hour a week, compared to standard mobile operator charges and can enjoy local rates when you travel back home.

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