Canada’s largest mobile operator by users, Rogers Communications, has revealed a plan to discontinue the brand of its subsidiary Mobilicity whilst moving all of Mobilicity’s remaining 150,000-plus subscribers to the Rogers budget sub-brand Chatr, reports Canadian website MobileSyrup. Effective 15 August 2016, Rogers will cease activating new Mobilicity connections, whilst sometime in the autumn it will begin migrating Mobilicity customers to Chatr, where they will be offered a ‘comparable’ package via a special web portal to be launched this summer.

Rogers began transitioning Mobilicity customers off the subsidiary’s 3G network to the parent’s 3G/4G network late last year, whilst the second phase of the ‘end game’ strategy for Mobilicity will involve transforming more than half of the brand’s 180 retail outlets into Chatr stores and kiosks. The remaining Mobilicity dealer locations will be shut down due to ‘low volume or because of their proximity to a Chatr distribution point,’ a Rogers spokesperson told MobileSyrup. Chatr currently has over 1,500 retail points.

Mobilicity operated independently over a 3G network covering Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa, focusing on flat monthly tariffs for urban subscribers, until it was acquired by Rogers for CAD465 million (USD359 million) in July 2015. In a statement to MobileSyrup, Shailendra Gujarati, vice-president of Chatr, promised that Mobilicity users moving to Chatr will receive ‘data options and simple plans that provide predictable costs via a flat fee every month.’

Thanks to TeleGeography for this article