TORONTO -- Wind Mobile has passed the 500,000-subscriber mark within three years of entering the Canadian wireless market.

Wind Mobile launched in December 2009 and was followed by Mobilicity, Public Mobile and Videotron as new companies offering cellphone service to consumers.

Wind says it has 225 branded store locations, more than 400 points of distribution within Canada and over 200 roaming agreements overseas.

Major players Rogers (TSX:RCI.B), Bell (TSX:BCE) and Telus (TSX:T) dominate the market with a total of more than 24 million subscribers.

Consultants have estimated that Wind, Mobilicity, Public Mobile and Quebecor's Videotron (TSX:QBR.B) will have about five per cent of the Canadian market -- or about 1.3 million subscribers -- by the end of this year.

Wind Mobile is a part of Amsterdam-based Vimpelcom Ltd., a global company of more than 200 million customers in 18 countries worldwide.