Seems that the
bickering over which Canadian carrier would land the
Storm has drawn to an end -- either that, or Telus is gearing up to jump the gun and just declare itself the preemptive winner in the hopes of elbowing Bell right out of the picture. Whatever the case, the CDMA giant now has a page up on its site encouraging folks to sign up to find out when the 9530 is available -- which according to Boy Genius Report's leaked press release, should be "just in time for the holiday shopping season." If that unnecessarily nebulous statement means November, that puts 'em right in line with Verizon to the south and Vodafone to the east; so much for preferential treatment on the home turf, eh?
[Via
Boy Genius Report]
Update: What's this -- a truce? Could it be? Bell has now
also announced that it's getting the Storm, so if there's any sort of exclusivity going on here, it's for an awfully short period of time. Thanks, everyone!
posted Oct 8th 2008 8:34AM
Coming from an American who doesn't want to hear the whining of his Canadian friends, please not Rogers. We all remember the last time Rogers got something nice, right? Yeah...
Oh god rogers is brutal.
I live in Nova Scotia. A lot of my friends had Aliant Mobility contracts which are running up. They are being forced to switch over to a new Bell contract (cannot carry over grandfather clauses). These new rate plans are ridiculously over priced because they are ment to be bundled with internet/tv/landline to get a discount. The problem here in Nova Scotia is that we don't have Bell internet/tv/landline (still Aliant, now known as "Bell Aliant").
Rogers is brutal as far as rural coverage goes. Even has poor reception in SOME urban areas (I'm still speaking for Nova Scotia).
Thank god Telus is still reasonably priced or else we'd be screwed. I pay $17.30 for 200 anytime minutes and evenings start at 6, then i added unlimited web, email, messaging, text, voicemail and caller ID for $30!
I still wish Canada had a better GSM carrier then Rogers. We need more competition!!
Meh. Rogers is evil, but so are Telus, Bell, and Fido (owned by Rogers). The problem is that none of them compete with eachother. They just screw us on every front. No matter which Canadian service provider gets this phone first, you're going to hear bitching because there's nothing nice to say about any of them.
Telus and Bell are feeling the bow from the mighty iPhone, Telus has been giving out anything to keep customers happy and not switch to the iPhone on Rogers...
wow thats a nice phone. if its on verizon when it comes to the states ill buy it
do want!
Excellent title, Engadget, just perfect! :)
The title is lame!
the term "Canadian Dominion" hasn't been used for close to 30 years (Precisely since 1982). If you don't know what it means, don't use it
I was about to say that Canada is no longer a Dominion. It's a nice name though
Canada should be happy. At least you don't have Telstra like our friends over in Australia. Now if you wanna talk about evil, i think Telstra is the worst on the face of the planet. Unless someone could tell me of a worse provider?
@alan
You haven't heard the voice of whiney Canadians then (hint: I am one). The carrier you are looking for is all over this page, and this article doesn't even TALK about it. The name's Rogers.
i too enjoyed the title. all y'all whiners need to chill out. if someone calls the US the 13 colonies in the next post, i'm not gonna freak out about it.
I thought Canada only had the one carrier - Rogers? I seem to remember people bitching that Rogers could do what they want because they had no competition.
Or maybe I'm going senile...
We have three. Bell (CDMA), Telus (CDMA) and Rogers (GSM).
You learn something new every day!
Thanks
Actually I think I know where I'm coming from now - was it to do tieh the iPhone?
You note that 2 are CDMA and one, Rogers, is GSM. Was it that you guys can only use the iPhone on Rogers?
*with
Dammit.
Iphone is also on Fido, which is now a sub-company of Rogers. it's offering almost identical rate on IPhone plan, AKA Screw-yourself-for-next-3-years plan.
Yup, since the iPhone is GSM-only, Rogers is the only carrier...well almost. We also have a provider called Fido, but they are owned by Rogers and offer very similar service packages. I've used both Fido and Rogers and can't say there's much difference, though my phone seemed less crippled by Fido, and their customer service was a bit better.
In the end, they're all (Telus, Bell, Rogers, Fido) fairly evil. The reason we say that there's no competition is because they're all equally evil so they split the reluctant customer base evenly.
@ Rob Bourne
Ya, you could only use the iPhone with Rogers or Fido (which is basically Rogers). Also, I don't know much about cell phone providers, but don't we have more CDMA ones, like Virgin Mobile and Koodo Mobile?
You got it. Rogers initially had set crazy high rate plans for the (long awaited) iPhone launch. There was a huge hissy-fit over it and Rogers gave in and created an early adopters 6GB web plan for the iPhone at $30/month (on top of a voice plan of course).
But yes, if you would like to use an iPhone in Canada, your stuck with Rogers.
@ SharpShooter
Yes, those companies piggy back off of the Bell network. They do not have their own towers.
Cheers for the clarification guys. It does seem sucky if you're a Canadian and you want an iPhone :(
That said, us in the UK can only get it on one network, but fortunately it's not as cripplingly extortionate.
I still didn't buy one though as I have an iPod Touch. Got myself a Diamond instead \o/
just saw this last night...
"we have the 15 yr plan, the lifetime plan, but the best deal is the pass it on plan, you get the iphone for free"
http://www.cbc.ca/22minutes/videoplayer2.html
go under recent videos (october 7th)...and iphone
Read this in a CBC article from a couple hours ago...
"Balsillie said the new touchscreen BlackBerry will also be available in Canada on Bell (TSX:BCE) and Telus (TSX:T) networks later this fall."
If that's the case they maybe launching at the same time...
On the Telus webpage from the read link Telus says they will be an "exclusive" launch carrier.
It'll probably only be exclusive for a short period of time.
BGR just updated that Telus informed them they are not the exclusive carrier of the Storm.
I live in Nova Scotia and work for the local government in a rural area. We are tied to a contract with Aliant (Bell) for rates and special hardware upgrade plans every 12 months. I certainly hope Bell will get this phone as they seem to have the best coverage in NS. Rogers is terrible outside the capital city. I believe Bell will get this phone before the holiday season. Maybe Telus has a 30 day exclusive on it?
You got it. Rogers initially had set crazy high rate plans for the (long awaited) iPhone launch. There was a huge hissy-fit over it and Rogers gave in and created an early adopters 6GB web plan for the iPhone at $30/month (on top of a voice plan of course).
But yes, if you would like to use an iPhone in Canada, your stuck with Rogers.
i am just hapy to have something coming on the CDMA (which I am stuck with) that can compete with the iPhone. The Samung Instinct is garbage for corporate use.
I hate not being able to post anything about the storm. I've been working on the ads for 2 months or so. there are some pretty funny anecdotes.
Now THAT was one usefull piece of information!
Telus has an info and updates page for the Storm up, it will pwn evil Rogers!
http://promo.telusmobility.com/storm/
Thank goodness I live in Saskatchewan. Nothing beats Sasktel for quality, coverage and service. I am sure Sasktel will pick up this phone eventually.
Amen - If only Sasktel would take that type of service and go national... but then it probably wouldn't be a crown corporation any more and they'd screw customers over like the rest of them.... Time to move to SK everyone!
Sasktel has no plans to release the Storm as far as I can find online.
In talking to Sasktel today, they will not be carrying the 'Storm' but will have a slightly altered version called the 'Thunder' come January.
ENGADGET GENIUSES !! Help me.
I'm really thinking about getting this phone here on verizon. Thing is I'm currently with T-mo. Correct me if I'm wrong but this phone will not be compatible with T-mo. Correct?
Also is it true that T-mo's 3G is the fastest?
i hope this isn't exclusive. can't get iphone, and now this...grrr...i have to use bell for work. i'm on call 24/7, i'd like to have a nice phone...and i'm not carrying 2 again...
Hopefully this become available from Bell as our company deal with bell and with our current contract, we can replace for free our Current BB 8830 to the same model or a higher model at the 18 months marks of our current contract which should be in a few months. If that is the case, I'll push for the company to switch to the Storm!
bell getting storm too for sure...maybe even before telus i hear.
commuication to my store just came through saying we are getting it
Um, you do realize that 'giant' has a meaning right? Specifically, when used as a noun it means something very big, usually in relation to similar things. Telus is the 3rd and last of Canada's major wireless carriers in terms of subscribers. It doesn't crack the top 10 North American carriers ranked by subscription. It has fewer subscribers than US Cellular. The next time you refer to Alltel, with over double Telus' subscription base, I want to see it described as a mega-behemoth. And when you mention Verizon in the same paragraph it will need at least 8 adjectives...
It was in the National Post today, both Bell and Telus will be selling the Storm by the end of 2008, according to Jim, the CEO of RIM.
@sharpshooter
Koodo is telus. Don't be fooled. They are the same company!
But what about the Touch Pro!? Everyone said it would be announced by Telus by the end of last week, but still nothing...
The Blackberry storm doesn't have wifi...what gives??!
Unfortunately in this country we all get screwed from them all. So once we get over knowing it then we can move onto other things. I think it is important to note that this is still a Blackberry and a portion of the network will still be RIM. I would take RIM service over ANYTHING. I know I will get nailed from Bell, Telus or Rogers so I will take my stupid little Bundled discount shut my trap and love my crackberry. iPhone can kiss my red eye, I dont like anything I cant take apart and clean or anything. Storm/Thunder supposedly doesnt have WiFi in USA and may only be because it is being rushed out. Allegedly the unit will have WiFi when released in Canada...commercials in late October and release in late November...lalallala have a greay day everyone.
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