CDMA provider contemplating move to GSM: The Telus edition

Ah yes, ye olde we're-going-to-switch-our-network-technology story surfaces again, seems we can't have a quarter without this type of story raising it's head. We heard this same tale back when Bell Canada was involved in all that sale / merger / rumor business, but this time Telus is the center of the fun. It seems that Telus may be set to abandon its 'Betamax" network and is now ogling the hundreds of millions of dollars in roaming revenue that the GSM carriers enjoy by considering a move to tap into it. Of course, this is merely speculation, but the story does seem to be gaining traction and Rogers shares actually suffered a 2.6 percent drop on this news yesterday. The Olympics are in Vancouver in 2010, we're thinking if Telus really was going to go for it -- and shell out an estimated half billion dollars -- that would be a prime time to roll out a hybrid EV-DO / HSDPA network.