TORONTO - New wireless company Wind Mobile says the threat of legal action and a curt dismissal from the major telecommunications players will not shake its confidence that it will become a fourth national player in Canada's hotly contested cellphone market.

Wind, owned by Globalive, opened 18 outlets in the Toronto area, with plans to open more later this week in Calgary and in Vancouver, Ottawa and Edmonton in the new year.

"Today marks a new chapter for wireless in Canada," said Wind chairman Anthony Lacavera. "We're looking forward to giving Canadians the first legitimate choice in wireless in over 10 years."

Globalive was given the go-ahead to operate in Canada on Friday when Industry Minister Tony Clement overturned a CRTC ruling -- which stated it wasn't Canadian-owned or controlled -- that had prevented an earlier launch. Globalive is 65 per cent owned by Egyptian telecom giant Orascom.

Globalive already operates long-distance business Yak, which has one million customers.

Lacavera said he isn't phased by Canada's largest telecom and media union's threat to fight Clement's decision because it violates the federal Telecommunications Act.

"We don't think there's anything legitimate about that, we've created already almost 1,000 jobs," he said. "There's lots of stats out there that show when the wireless industry becomes more competitive, the GDP goes up."

The company is pinning its competitive hopes on contractless price plans, which it says reflect what Canadians really want when they buy a cellphone, when it goes up against the already established players, Rogers (TSX), Bell (TSX:BCE), and Telus (TSX:T).

Voice pricing plans range from $15 per month for a basic 100-minute-a-month option to $45 per month for an unlimited Canada-wide text and voice plan.

Separate data plans that can be bundled into a handset plan range from $10 to $35 a month. There is no cap on usage, but if customers exceed five gigabytes of data usage in a month, the company will slow their speed.

Telus spokesman Shawn Hall said the new company's offerings are not threatening to Telus, but added a team was already combing through the details of Wind's plans.

"We're not seeing anything in there that's causing us any concern," he said. "It appears that their rate plans simply mimic rate plans we've already got in place, but with the addition of some new fees."

The new company's network coverage is focused in the Greater Toronto Area. Customers will pay higher rates outside those regions, where it provides national coverage through a roaming agreement with Rogers.

Rogers, Canada's largest wireless provider, said the company is ready for new competition in Wind Mobile. Bell did not comment.

Telecommunications analyst Eamon Hoey said the big three companies should not be so quick to dismiss the new player.

"They should go and talk to General Motors Chrysler and Ford and they'll tell them how they ignored Toyota, Honda and Suburu and what happened there?"

Wind says it will attract customers because it has invested where the big three have fallen short.

"Canadians have spoken loudly that they've fallen short, so loudly that the government came out and created a policy for new competition," he said.

A queue of about 50 new customers waited outside to catch a glimpse of the brightly-coloured store and the four handsets it is rolling out, the BlackBerry Bold 9700, the HTC Maple, Huawei U7519 and Samsung Gravity 2.

Austin Moore was one of the first people in line at Wind Wednesday. He said he wanted to become a Wind customer because he wanted more honesty from his phone company.

"We just gotta take a gamble because the current phone companies suck and people will realize this is way better," he said.

Ian Kwechansky still has a two-and-a-half year contract but said he wanted to come and see what he might be offered if he didn't.

"There really hasn't been much revolution in our mobile industry, we still pay three year contracts, we pay more for wireless than any other developed country in the world. These guys are going to be the people who are setting into motion the change and revolution in the Canadian wireless industry," he said.

Wind charges full price for its handsets up front at cost. Handset range from $130 to $450 for the Blackberry.

Deloitte Canada analyst Duncan Stewart said that pricing structure is unusual in North America, where there is aversion to paying for phones up front.

"The funny thing is it's not economically rational," he said.

"In many cases people in order to avoid paying $300 for a phone sign up for a three year deal at an extraordinarily high rate and they end up effectively paying much more than they would have if they simply bought the phone themselves and signed up on a month-by-month basis."

He added that while the up front payment could deter some customers, it was the only option Wind could afford as a new entrant. "Subsidizing is not something a new entrant like Wind would find very easy to do."

Stewart said it was unlikely the existing wireless companies would continue to fight the company in court for fear of being perceived as the big bad guys beating up on a new player.

Wind launched on the same day a B.C. court judge ruled Bell could no longer claim it is Canada's most reliable network, following a similar injunction issued last month after Telus argued against Rogers' own claim to be Canada's most reliable network.