Holy S%$#t, Bell and Telus to launch iPhone

October 5th, 2009Holy S%$#t, Bell and Telus to launch iPhone

The news burning up the twittersphere today is that Bell and Telus are both revealed to be launching the Apple iPhone in Canada, as early as next month.

Neither Bell nor Telus would confirm that they would add the iPhone to their lineups. Apple also declined to comment. But people familiar with the matter said the two carriers will announce a working partnership with Apple as early as Tuesday or Wednesday and begin selling the device in time for the launch of their new network next month.

This is pretty epic news and a huge win for Canadians. Not for the sake of the iPhone, which is a perfectly excellent phone, but because it means the HSPA competitive war is now on. Far more than the coming new entrants (though they won’t hurt either) the fact that all three big telcos are now going toe-to-toe in the once Rogers-only universe of GSM can only be good news for the rest of us. In fact, Canada is the only market we can think of where 3 three carriers are offering the speedy fruit-themed widget. We just now need to see what the plans will be.

One also wonders if supplies of 3GS’s at Rogers outlets will also magically improve real quick?

link: Bell, Telus to launch iPhone next month

Coming soon on WirelessNorth.ca: Dear Bell and Telus, please just kiss and makeout and get it over with already.

UPDATE: It appears that triple-carrier iPhone is becoming the norm in various markets including the UK and France. At WirelessNorth.ca we for one welcome this new comoditization of high-end smart phones.

frankyB

No real surprise when you know Rogers never sign an exclusive agreement with Apple. No real surprise when you know Bell and Telus have spending like crazy to overhaul their network to support GSM/HSPA+ on their network and for Bell, strategically before the Olympics (they would look like fouls to sponsor it and see all those athletes roaming on Rogers)

AND IT'S A GOOD THING!!!!

TO JR:
GSM does stipulate on which band it should RUN it has nothing to do with the Standard. It does make it more difficult for us N-A to get all the same handset that are available elsewhere. Now that Rogers won't be the only one selecting what we can or can't have, you will see more Quad bands GSM/UMTS phones in our makets.

Craig H

Australia has more than 3 carriers selling it. Vodafone, Optus, Telstra, Virgin

JR

....and another thing: Why does the Canadian cellphone industry see a need to charge for different types of data? How can carriers make plans that say "you can email this many emails, or send this many IM messages, or use this much data for xyz application, or download this much from the web", etc.?

This is a major privacy issue too. A cellphone carrier can see exactly which application you're using at any given time on your phone. And why does tethering cost more for raw data than using a supported 3G modem?? It shouldn't matter what type of device I'm using.

IT'S ALL DATA!

Just give me like 10GB of data for a reasonable amount of money ($35 should be more than enough for cellphone providers to make a healthy profit) and let me use it for whatever I like. There's a reason why smartphone uptake in Canada is so low, and it's not for lack of hardware.

constant gina

When I read the title I was like whhaaa Bell?? as in Southern Bell lmao...they are going tech backwards..lmao..!!

JR

Ok, I get that everybody on the same page might seem to be better for competition, but it hasn't done anything between Bell and Telus. Since I purchased a Touch Diamond when it came available on Telus, and then shortly after on Bell, rates have gone UP, not down! When I subscribed a little over a year ago (summer 2008), it was $45 for "unlimited" (read: 5GB) data, SMS, IM, email, and whathaveyou. Now it's a paltry 500MB. Bell is now the same too. Also, all three providers were offering 3G USB sticks for free back then, and anywhere from $20-$100 on a tiered mobile broadband, with $100 offering unlimited bandwidth. Now it's not. Why has the CRTC deregulated the cellphone industry? Why do I pay a "network access fee" to access the network??? WTF is my monthly fee for then?!

This whole thing about the spectrum auction is just going to further segment GSM frequencies too. North American GSM providers are already not compatible with worldwide carriers. I don't see how bringing GSM is going to benefit international teams for the Olympics when they won't get 3G here with the current North American GSM implementations. By auctioning off additional frequencies, it will cost handset makers more for mobile chipsets that offer all of the frequencies combined. Do you really think that this cost is not going to be passed down to consumers?

Peter C

This is exciting news..HSPA/GSM networks on all 3 major carriers. Now, I would caution that we should not expect to see cut throat competition..they are smart enough not to eat their own after-all. The competition catalyst will truly occur when we have the new wireless entrants join the market place. All we can hope for is that the major carriers through their quasi competition introduce a true all-you-can-eat data plan to the market....then see what innovative projects/businesses/applications will launch.

dude1

i just hope we can use our old plans if we get one not on contract, on bell with my htc touch i get $5 unlimited data with tethering using a hacked rom. i dont care if i need to jailbreak and clone the IMEI from a crap phone to do it but i want my cheap unlimited data

Alex

I hope the big three don't wait to use their AWS band for LTE and start also using them now...

That would allow real competition with portable device across almost all providers, for data at least.
(GSM with 4 band is pretty much a solved issue...)

Dan Lessard

Telus has posted it live on their site as coming soon!!

https://www.telusmobility.com/en/ON/home/index....

Adrien O'Leary

I'm happy with today's news as a TELUS client in Quebec. It's not that I will get an iPhone but we can expect more competition in the market. By the way, I want to correct something you said. I invite you to check the following article (linked below): Orange to offer iPhone service in the UK. There you can read that the iPhone is already offered by the 3 carriers in French.
http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=0233DCE5-1A64-...

In the article, you can read the following: Gene Munster noted that multiple carriers help Apple achieve greater market penetration. In France, for example, Apple's market share jumped after other carriers began offering the iPhone earlier this year.

Wirelessnorth.ca

October 5th, 2009Holy S%$#t, Bell and Telus to launch iPhone

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