Wirelessnorth.ca

Calling it the “Betamax” of wireless standards, there was a piece in the Toronto Star this weekend covering growing speculation that Telus (if not Bell as well) may switch their network to GSM.

“The CDMA format is still common in North America but is increasingly falling out of favour as the rest the world moves toward GSM. A switch would allow Telus subscribers to roam on more overseas networks and choose from a much larger (and cheaper) selection of cellphones built for global markets, where some 80 per cent of cellphone users now operate on a GSM format.”

Despite the enormous cost of the switchover there’s a few reasons to believe it’s ultimately inevitable that one or both of Telus and Bell will go GSM. GSM is by far the dominant world standard, giving GSM operators access earlier to a larger pool of hadsets and equipment (the iPhone, for example, is currently GSM-only) and, for a more immediate business case, is roaming.

Any new entrant in the current spectrum auction would go GSM, opening up a competitive market for GSM handsets (and SIM cards) in Canada for the first time since Rogers bought out Microcell several years ago.

At present almost any international vistor to Canada will be carrying a GSM device, and they run hundreds of millions in roaming minutes a year. Currently ALL of that revenue goes to Rogers.

You can bet the backroom deal offering with the equipment vendors is going on something fierce at Telus these days. We’d peg Ericsson as the likely big winner if Telus makes the switch.

Link, Toronto Star Telus considers dumping its `Betamax’ of wireless networks

Thanks to Mack D. Male for the tip.