MONTREAL-New wireless player Public Mobile will launch in Toronto and Montreal in mid-May, offering unlimited talk and text for $40 a month.

Public Mobile announced Thursday it has 15 stores now open in Toronto and 10 in Montreal selling cellphones.

“We're excited of offer unlimited talk and text and we want people to have the chance to use our service as soon as it's available,” CEO Alek Krstajic said in a news release.

Krstajic says he expects Public Mobile to have twice the number of locations open by mid-May when the service is up and running in both cities.

He said customers who buy their phones now will be easily able to activate them when service begins in two months.

Public Mobile is one of several new entrants into the wireless business, now dominated by Rogers (TSX:RCI.B), Bell (TSX:BCE) and Telus (TSX:T).

New player Wind Mobile launched in December and it's been estimated it has attracted only about 30,000 subscribers.

Public Mobile is aiming at basic talk and text services with no contract and is looking to attract Canadians who don't already own cellphones.

Deloitte Canada technology analyst Duncan Stewart said once Public Mobile attracts these untapped customers, it still has to find ways to further grow its business.

Stewart said Wind Mobile's experience has shown that it's not always easy to attract customers even when offering no contracts and subsidies for cellphones.

“We've turned into a no-money down culture in North America,” said Stewart, director of research in technology, media and telecommunications. “In North America we are subsidy-a-holics.”

Stewart said consumers routinely say they don't want contracts for their cellphones but they also don't like to pay the full cost of the phone in order to avoid having contracts.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Wireless carriers typically subsidize phones, often several hundred dollars, and consumers then sign three-year contracts in order to have mobile phones be less expensive.

In most other parts of the world, people pay month-to-month for their cellphones and don't have contracts.