iPhone headed to Telus and Bell's fancy new HSPA networks next month?
By Paul Miller 
posted October 5th 2009 10:07PM
posted October 5th 2009 10:07PM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted October 5th 2009 10:07PM
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So, if I get a phone with bell now, can I use the HSPA feature?
I'm talking about BlackBerry's.
What about Telus?
Is it going to be a completely new type of cellphone technology?
Like with SIM cards?
Is it better to wait?
Ya, not really updated on the whole HSPA!
Can anyone answer the questions?
I'm in the dark here!
Read the article.
So when is Apple gonna pull the plug on AT&T?
you think they'll give me a sim card for my bell account? :D
"Rogers isn't the best-loved carrier in Canada"
Going for "Understatement of the Century", Engadget?
What's with the lack of love for Rogers? I've never gotten that sense. I just switched after a 3 year contract with Bell and it was the best decision I've made in a long time: better service in-store and with customer support, far superior network coverage, etc.
wow this level of trolling is just plain epic.
I will probably switch over to Bell or Telus is Rogers/Fido doesn't change their voice + data plans. Plus Bell, Telus and Rogers need to stop blocking the incumbents. Yet the CRTC to blind to see what is going on.
wow bell will have twice the choice: the Palm Pre and the iPhone. Jesusphones!
All of the carriers in Canada suck. You should see some of these cell sites they have. Horribly built, horribly maintained and I am surprised that people get service from them at all.
Never got a dropped call from Fido, Bell, and Virgin Mobile (Virgin Mobile uses Bell towers).
I love Canada!
Now.
So, if I get a phone with bell now, can I use the HSPA feature?
I'm talking about BlackBerry's.
What about Telus?
Is it going to be a completely new type of cellphone technology?
Like with SIM cards?
Is it better to wait?
Ya, not really updated on the whole HSPA!
I'm curious as to where you got your info? My understanding is that the cell towers built by all 3 major carriers here in Canada are state of the art. I'm not saying that all of them are, but I'd like to know your justification.
As I and Torontodirk said.
Canada's cellphone networks run 100% well. No problems whatsoever. I never experienced a dropped call. We don't have an overcrowded country full of BAD naughty people!
We can also walk our streets without carrying a gun!
Dude needs to check his e-mail.
Okay, Apple... First you've ended iPhone exclusivity in the UK and now you're doing it in Canada, so how about doing it in America next? I realize it's not as simple with Verizon and Sprint running on CDMA networks and T-Mobile using the AWS GSM frequencies, but I'd rather not wait for LTE to get my hands on an iPhone with good reception.
Robbers
Ask any rogers customer and I bet you 95% of them will have negative things to say. But all they can do is bit*h and moan as they're locked down for 3 years while the alternatives bells and telus don't fare any better.
I'm interested to see if bell/telus offer a reasonable data plan compared to rogers but I really doubt it.
OMG! Bell can finally wake up in Smartphone market again with this, not to mention telus too. But i wanna talk more about bell since it doesn't really sell that many smartphones right now. Its major source is ofcourse, Cable and stuff. But think about that ...
Palm Pre and iPhone = The 2 smartest of all smartphones will be on bell.... Not to mention bell has blackberries too. Omg! I can see how Bell is totally gonna beat Rogers this time :p.
well.. i dont know if bell will beat the 6G data plan on rogers for the iphone, which is currently unavalible, yes. but may pop up again,
i switched from bell a but a year ago to get the bold on rogers,
bells service is horrible and i could barly get basement service.
im happy with rogers and also do own a 3GS, i doubt the cdma version will be much different
I have to admit, up until a few weeks ago I was one of the many Rogers haters myself (I still miss Telus), but my reception with my new iPhone at home is amazing. Frequently I was getting poor reception from Telus. As a result, I cancelled my home line through Bell. Even though I'm paying more monthly now for my iPhone, I'm actually saving money overall by not having a home line anymore. I also have to admit that Rogers customer service has been excellent for me, and I still have my high speed internet service through Bell which is now on what they call a ghost line (Same phone jack but no home phone service).
rogers has some times screwed me but i have been with them for 12 years i have everythign threw them and they have the best coverage and service by far i did the math its cheeper to have rogers for cell phones bshure they CS may suck but what company dosnt have a shitty CS
Their new HSPA network which is an overlay on top of Bell’s 1XRTT/EV-DO Rev A. network, will offer speeds of up to 21Mbps. While that might be impressive enough, they’ve also managed to cover over 1,000,000 square kilometers including 20,000 cities and towns, reaching 93% of the entire Canadian population.
I live in the Yukon Territory (right across the border from Alaska for US readers), and I was very pleased to discover that Bell is even extending that HSPA service here. Kind of surprising given that we only finally got decent 1X here a couple of years ago.
Mind you, our only link to the rest of the world now is through a single strand of fibre, and it's broken 4 times in the past 6 months, knocking out pretty much everything but POTS, so we still have a ways to go...
This has been rumoured for a long time. With the Olympics coming to Vancouver this winter (Bell is a major sponsor) Bell and Telus – who have major network presence in Western Canada – wanted to have GSM networks up and running to capture all that international roaming revenue coming to Vancouver.
There are also new carriers about to come online who will eat the Big Three's lunch if they don't start aggressively leading where customers want to go in terms of price, features and reliability.
Bell and Telus will have to work fast to establish the roaming agreements with foreign carriers, or it's gonna be robbers, robbers, robbers.
I can tell you that the difference in coverage between Rogers and Telus/Bell is astounding in Nova Scotia outside of the city - I have never gotten any signal when hiking at Kejimkujik National Park or through many parts of Cape Breton when I am roaming on Rogers (with my Tmobile phone), but imagine my surprise when a colleague of mine (up visiting with her Verizon phone) had 4bars in these same places roaming on Telus/Bell....
people thought i was crazy when i leaked this 4 months ago
http://howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1541425
Why hasn't anyone blown up rogers HQ yet? What's taking so long and Canadians aren't real people.
Canadians lack 'real aggression' - preferring the bitch/moan territory ... unless it comes to little league hockey - then lookout, we'z killin' people then.
BELL IS HORRIBLE THEY HAVE EARLY CANACLATION CLUASE WERE YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR THE WHOLE TERM, ROGERS DOSNT THEY HAVE A CAP ON THE MAX THEY CAN CHARGE.
next rogers may be horrible but shit every god dam carryer here in canada is horrible bell has to be the shittyest corverage dont get me started on telues they are just as bad and no matter how you say it rogers has come down in price but look at it this way if you dumb to be suckerd into paying anything over 70 then you are a fool i know i use to pay 110 on a bb pre ear of the data becoming cheep! i now pay 67 taxes included for 3 gb bb unlimited weekends and nights my 5 120 anytime mins unilmited text .ect and i could get that same plan on a iphone if i pleased i highly doubt any outher carryer here is going to match that it just wont happen. also fido was bought out by rogers same company diffrent demographic and this has been a long time running fido piggy backs off the rogers nextwork fyi
This doesn't matter. Bell is so out of lunch at the top of the chain, they have no idea how bad their customer service is, and will charge a ridiculous rate for data.
I haven't talked to anybody that said I am waiting for the Iphone to come to Bell or Telus.
I don't buy the population density crap as a justification for the high mobile prices in canada... have you looked at the coverage maps? they cover only the most populated areas... now, if they were erecting towers to blanket the ENTIRE CANADIAN WILDERNESS so you could get a signal in the HINTERLANDS, then yeah, you could say that they have to justify that extra coverage... but what I believe happens is this: they put competitive technology in the densely populated areas, and move the "obsolete" technology to the outlying areas to add inferior coverage to the fringes... but even that isn't done for the sake of charity: it's done because they are HUGELY PROFITABLE.
Don't be quick to give Canadian mobile operators any benefit of the doubt on why the prices are high: it's because there isn't enough competition, plain and simple.
Just wondering this, but how is bell going to do this? I realize now that bell is going HSPA next month, so that means they are going to use a Sim Card? that's really the big question. And I'm wondering where there going to be rolling out the HSPA network? Hopefully in the GTA =D
Bell/Telus built a GSM base network just for a phone that can't do video conference on 3.5G network? hmmmm.....
Very strange strategy indeed.....
I think a lot of it had to do with competition, when I worked at Telus for a short period, they touted that it was for the Europeans that were coming here for the Olympics...skeptical
Rogers isn't all that loved, but Telus is more hated. This is just another monopoly scam. Customer service and promotion wise, Rogers hand down...from a reader that has run with both.
I should also add that rumor has it that they are trying to be the first with a 4G network, this might be part of that bigger picture. Hopefully the Canadian government stops the cannibalism and monopoly pursuit
To everyone here talking about Canadian cell phone companies:
2 year contracts are available with those discount providers like Fido, Solo and Koodoo. Just don't expect an iphone or something fancy on a 2 year contract.
An international wireless provider is coming to Canada VERY soon...
http://www.windmobile.ca/
And another wireless company is coming to canada soon...
http://www.publicmobile.ca/
They might not be carrying the best phones or not, but hey it's a start!
Recently i unlocked my 3GS 3.1.2 iphone and i want to know if its safe, i used http://www.unlock-iphone.org , please tell me if its safe