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Vidéotron launches mobile service in Canada, lots of smartphones in tow; iPhone in the cards?
Canada's Quebecor has launched mobile service through its Vidéotron brand today, adding another start-up to an increasingly confusing array of new players challenging the country's legacy wireless giants, Rogers, Bell, and Telus. Like Mobilicity, Public Mobile, and WIND Mobile, Vidéotron uses AWS spectrum to offer 3G service, and the selection of devices at launch is surprisingly decent: you've got access to the Nexus One, Motorola XT720, Garmin A50, and BlackBerry Bold 9700, alongside a bunch of lower-end offerings and a data card. Though the carrier's network is restricted to Quebec, roaming deals are in place that should allow them to offer service "almost 95 percent of the country." Perhaps the juiciest thing to come out of the launch today, though, happened during the Q&A session of the launch press conference, where one of the company's executive vice presidents apparently noted that Apple is in the process of manufacturing an AWS-compliant iPhone and that we should "expect an announcement in the coming months" regarding Vidéotron's launch. That certainly lends credence to recent rumors that T-Mobile USA is preparing to offer the iPhone -- like Vidéotron, it uses AWS 3G -- but just as with the perpetual Verizon rumors, we're going to hold off on calling this one gold until we see the units on a store shelf. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
The next tru2way market is..... in Canada?
It's been a rough 2009 for tru2way, but an expected bit of positive news has appeared now that it finally has a footing in Canada, courtesy of Samsung and Viedotron. After being dissed by Rogers we weren't sure if it would be seen up north but word is the 1.75-million subscribers strong cable company will not only support Samsung tru2way DVRs, but also sell them at its retail locations. Still no word on when Samsung will follow Panasonic's lead and get any of its plug-and-play HDTVs onto the market, but Cable Digital News indicates four have already been certified by CableLabs.
Videotron ups the HD ante in Quebec
Keeping the HD news from up North flowing is Vidéotron, which has just announced its plans to revamp its HD lineup. The Quebec-servicing cable provider has been able to get its illico digital television service out to over a million households, and it's vowing to "continue its digital terminal and HDTV service rollout with the upcoming arrival of RDI HD and ARTV HD in early May, with 30 HD stations, 14 of which are in French." Unfortunately, there aren't any details about channel names or anything lovely like that, but we figure a tease is better than nothing at all, right?
