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BellCanada posts

Palm Pre definitely coming to Canada on Bell Mobility: 2H 2009

by Darren Murph posted May 6th 2009 at 9:26AM

What the CEO wants, the CEO gets -- right? Evidently so, as just four months after Ed Colligan proudly stated that he wanted the Pre in Canadian hands, Palm has revealed that the to-be launched handset will indeed grace the cellular airwaves in the Great North. Canucks will have to rely on Bell Mobility (a CDMA carrier, for those unaware) for service, and they'll have to wait until "the second half of 2009" to indulge. Check the read link to get yourself signed up for notifications, and feel free to start the countdown until 11:59PM on December 31st, 2009.

Palm's Treo Pro hits Bell Mobility in Canada

by Paul Miller posted Feb 27th 2009 at 9:37AM

We're still waiting on a solid bit of subsidized US availability on Sprint, but Canada's got things all figured out -- how typical. Palm's Treo Pro is doing the EV-DO Rev. A thing on Bell Mobility up there, going for $99.95 on a three-year contract -- 1 and 2-year contracts are $0 and off contract is only $49, so we'll likely be updating when things settle down. That sounds like a silly amount of time to be tied to Windows Mobile 6.1, but we're temporal pessimists like that. Bell Mobility customers can pick up the phone as of today.

Twitter returns to @Bell Canada for $0.15 a pop

by Sean Cooper posted Feb 26th 2009 at 10:29AM

While the fact that Twitter's SMS service is returning to Canada is grand news, Bell Canada's 15 cent price for admission is most definitely not. Twitter shut down the outbound SMS service in November last year due to rising costs with a note that it was working toward a solution to fix it. Well, it seems the solution's been found and that's to pass it down the line to the Twitter users as a premium service that they'll pay for, both sending and receiving. Our advice here is to hunt down a free client and use it or call Bell and fire up the waterworks, though, we suspect that'll get you about nowhere.

Update: Just for the sake of clarity, this is in no way related to Bell's policy on 15 cent incoming SMS costs. Bell's Julie Smithers said "Because Twitter is a third-party service, the messages are considered premium and not covered by our plans...This aligns with industry standards regarding third-party premium messaging."

[Thanks, @fruhlinger]

LG Electronics recalls 45,000 LG 150 phones in Canada

by Darren Murph posted Jan 27th 2009 at 3:42PM

Ruh roh. LG Electronics has just issued a voluntary recall of around 45,000 LG 150 phones in Canada, and for whatever reason, Bell Mobility has agreed to assist in cleaning up the mess. Of course, it probably helps that basically every single one was used by a Bell subscriber, but we digress. Reportedly, LG was "notified by one of the independent bodies responsible for the certification of mobile phones that the LG 150 mobile phone is no longer certified as meeting the Radio Standards Specifications 102 (RSS 102), Radio Frequency Exposure Compliance of Radiocommunication Apparatus," thus LG decided it best to go ahead and make this here move. Users who just so happen to be reading this while yapping on an LG 150 can hit the read link for all the pertinent exchange information, and watch out, 'cause it could implode into a furry ball of molten cuteness at any moment. Just kidding.

[Via IntoMobile]

Moto Q in Black hits the Great White North

by Cyrus Farivar posted Nov 13th 2006 at 1:02PM

Well folks, it appears that our friends to the north have greased Motorola's palms with a few extra loonies, eh. Indeed, the northerly division of Motorola will be the first company to launch the new Moto Q in Black, available exclusively from Bell Canada. This new piece of ebony elegance comes with all the same features you'd expect from the previous Q: EV-DO, 2.4-inch screen, 65,000 colors, 64MB RAM / 128MB ROM, and a 1.3 megapixel camera. It's basically the same as the old Q, except that it's black (duh), with a soft touch finish. It's available for C$150 ($132) with a new voice plan, and minimum C$60 ($53) data package on a three-year contract. To our American countrymen and countrywomen who are already making a run for the border, a word of advice: that same trick with the loonies probably won't work with US Customs when you try to smuggle it into the lower 48. Instead, just sit tight and wait until this handset hits Verizon -- sometime soon, we hope.

Lease an Xbox 360 for only $1,917*

by Evan Blass posted Oct 22nd 2006 at 5:05PM

*Price includes Tom Clancy's G.R.A.W., NHL '07, Live Arcade Volume 1, three-month Xbox Live Gold membership, 1,250 Microsoft points, a wireless modem, and three years of Sympatico high-speed internet from Bell Canada.

With "next-generation" consoles being released every three to four years nowadays (save for Sony's PlayStation 3, which has a stated 10-year life span), some people (read: parents and spouses) are a little hesitant to throw down upwards of $300 for a system that will probably be gathering dust in the attic even before the wireless controllers need replacing. Well Canadian children will soon have a new angle to work when begging their folks for an Xbox 360, thanks to a package that Bell Canada will be offering from November 5th through sometime next year which includes Microsoft's latest console, a handful of games, and broadband service for CAN$59.95 a month (or CAN$54.95 for you lucky Quebecers). The catch here is that you need to sign up for an unusually long three-year commitment; furthermore, it's unclear if you'll be able to purchase the nearly-worthless console at the end of the contract or be given the opportunity to upgrade to an Xbox 361 once it hits stores. It's also not clear what kind of upload / download speeds you're getting with this offer -- an important piece of the puzzle in deciding whether or not this bundle is a good value. Still, if you're the type who's already renting your apartment, leasing your car, and paying way too much money to Rent-A-Center each month for your home theater gear, this promotion may be right up your alley.

[Via digg and HappyBeggar]

Clearwire rolls out VoIP service (in one market)

by Evan Blass posted Apr 10th 2006 at 9:30PM

Probably further annoying the Vonage users that it supposedly cut-off last year, WiMax "class" wireless broadband provider Clearwire has just announced its own Bell Canada-powered VoIP service for that works with regular telephones, or for more sophisticated call control, over a user's PC. The new service, which is currently limited to Clearwire subscribers in the Stockton, California market, and further restricted to those residents who are "e911 capable," requires a $15 Internet adapter if you want to use a regular corded or cordless phone, and costs $30-a-month for unlimited calling within the US and Canada (international calls are supposedly "competitively priced"). That thirty bucks also gets you browser-configurable call forwarding, "Find Me Follow Me" enhanced call forwarding, caller ID, voice mail, voice mail-to-email capabilities, and caller blocking, as well as the semi-useful ability to get your mobile VoIP on anywhere Clearwire has coverage (currently 200 US/international cities that most people don't live in), if you don't mind toting your laptop and modem around.

[Via dailywireless]