All Articles Tagged bell

Bell Mobility has just announced that their new GSM/HSPA network, shared with previously-CDMA frenemy Telus, has gone live! What does that mean? Yesterday, Rogers and their Fido subsidiary were the only place to go for Apple’s iPhone (or a BlackBerry Bold if that’s how you roll). Today — technically as soon as Telus announces — you have your choice of 3.5 carriers (Fido is still Rogers).

So this means massive competition, price wars, and a huge win for consumers, right?

Eh… not so much. Like Orange UK, multiple carriers seems only to mean multiple non-competitive pricing plans, as each one wants as much as they can get, and don’t feel any pressure to compete — yet.

Hardware prices are the same, up to $299 for the iPhone 3GS on a 3-year contract, with service plans ranging from $45 for 100 minutes, Fab Five, 500MB, night/weekends 9pm-7am to $95 for 500 min, Fab Five, 2GB, nights/weekends.

(Along with $6.95 system access fee, monthly e911 fee, $2 paper billing option, $35 activation fee, and other nickel and diming…)

If you’re planning to hook your iPhone up to Ma (Canadian) Bell, let us know what you think of the pricing, and what you choose!

Update: Telus is official too, here’s their sign-up page for those who want more info.

Bell just went and made it official:

Bell and Apple have reached an agreement to bring iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS to Canada this November.

For US readers, this is sort of like Verizon and Sprint both announcing HSPA networks and iPhone availability in November. Sounds, nifty, doesn’t it?

Canadian readers, what we want to know is will you stick with Rogers/Fido, or give Bell or Telus a whirl?

TiPb, among others, has been hearing rumors for months now that Bell and Telus’ new GSM-based HSPA+ network would be up and running by November, and that the iPhone would follow along immediately there after. Nice to see some confirmation via Canadian stalwart, the Globe and Mail, however:

Bell announced Monday that it will launch national service in November on the $1-billion next-generation wireless network it has been building with Telus, months ahead of schedule. The project extends the two companies’ existing third-generation (3G) networks to include the same technology standard employed by Rogers, the nation’s largest cellphone company.

No comments from any of the carriers or Apple, of course, and it remains to be seen what if any downward pressure competition in Canada — like in the UK — would put on iPhone pricing for consumers.

Our question: Bell and Telus will have HSPA+ but no EDGE (to our knowledge), so if an iPhone on Bell or Telus couldn’t get a 3G signal, what exactly would it fall back on? EVDO/CDMA is not an option…

While even our friends over at PreCentral.net haven’t exactly been thrilled by Palm’s own, creepy Pre ads, we’re not sure Bell Canada’s approach — filming an original iPhone 2G ad using the Pre as a stand in — is any better.

As a Canadian myself, I’d like to assure the world we’re really a heckuvalot more creative than this! (Right Bell?!)

Recent iPhone ad for comparison’s sake, after the jump!

[via TUAW]

Read the rest of this entry »

BGR served up a rumor that Telus in Canada was getting the iPhone 3GS in October. How will a CDMA carrier get the GSM iPhone? Simple, as mentioned last year, Telus has partnered with Bell to expand their CDMA network by adding in HSPA. That means Bell Mobility could support the iPhone 3GS as well, and the rumor’s TiPb’s hearing is they just might (though exact timing will of course depend on how fast they get HSPA up and running).

If Rogers/Fido’s Canadian iPhone 3GS exclusivity was tied only to their GSM monopoly, and that suddenly becomes an oligopoly, will the increased competition lead to better iPhone plans and prices for Canadian consumers? Well, oligopolies are historically only slightly better than monopolies, so we won’t get our hopes up any time soon.

So Canadians, anyone rather have their iPhone on Telus or Bell?

Like much of the rest of the world, iPhones remain in short supply in Canada and with 20 more countries launching in a few weeks, its hard to imagine that changing anytime soonish. (Though if you visit Apple’s newly launched, and first Canadian Flagship Store in Montreal, they’ll have live music, let you play with demos, and learn tips from the Apple Specialists, b’okay?)

So what is changing then? Only the very fabric of the industry it seems. See, Canada has only one national GSM provider: Rogers (who owns the brand Fido as well). The other two national carriers, Bell and Telus, use the same technology as Verizon in the US, the incompatible CDMA… Or at least they did… Our publicly owned television network, CBC is now reporting that Bell and Telus may just be switching teams, either to Wideband CDMA or HSPA, in order to better compete in a world dominated by GSM and touting sexy handsets like the iPhone 3G.

What would this mean for Canadians? Competition (which hopefully translates into competitive pricing):

Multiple iPhone carriers would likely be music to the ears of the more than 50,000 people who signed an online petition against Rogers’ rates ahead of the device’s launch on July 11. Australia, with its three carriers including Telstra, has some of the lowest prices on the device in the world, according to CBCNews.ca’s iPhone iNdex. Switzerland, with two iPhone carriers, also ranks well in pricing. Rogers’ iPhone, meanwhile, ranks roughly in the middle of the pack in terms of monthly pricing but is the second-most expensive in the world in terms of total commitment by virtue of its mandatory three-year contract, the longest offered by any carrier in any country.

Oh my, but wouldn’t that make things ever so suddenly interesting?