If you go to Telus' website right now it says iPhone 3G
So I would call that confirmation.
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Rogers' iPhone Exclusivity in Canada to End Next Month?
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If you go to Telus' website right now it says iPhone 3G
So I would call that confirmation.
The iPhone's coolness has very little to do with exclusive agreements. It is just a very cool device with a mass of applications. That's what lifts it out of the ordinary.
This development will hopefully bring price reductions across the board and hopefully signal the death of the abomination called the "System Access Fee"...
I think you missed the 'rumors' part of macrumors. What you said pretty much negates the whole concept of the site in the first place.
It's well established that Europeans (esp UKers) overpay/are charged more for things.
I'm in the UK, and I pay the equivalent of that per month for 700 mins and unlimited texts and data in addition to what you have (with an iPhone competitor phone). Plus when I got my phone, I got reduced insurance, £30 cash back, a set of speakers, a dock and an 8GB memory card all for nothing. You got screwed over paying that much.
I've been a Telus customer forever -- not for any particularly good reason, mind you -- so this is good news for me. I have thus far refrained from jumping to Rogers because of prohibitively expensive iphone plans. Perhaps I can get some sort of loyalty pricing now.
No, I think you missed the point of my comment.
The rumors that are posted here on MacRumors aren't just things that Arn hears from some guy whose friend swears they saw something new and cool. The rumors posted here are typically from trusted sources, from multiple independent sources who all say the same thing, or contain photos of the rumored device/software/etc.
Otherwise, the front page of this site would contain stories like:
MacRumors Forum Member Swears His Friend Saw iPhones In Bell Warehouse
or
Guy I Met At The Gas Station Says New MacBooks Are Coming On October 20th
There is no reason to believe that Telus is planning on offering the iPhone for less than Rogers. If they do, I doubt it would be a significant difference. Plus, I bet they would exempt the iPhone from any loyalty discounts.........
Well, in my opinion that's a pretty weak reason for wanting an iPhone in the first place, but go ahead and be the guy that's different just for the sake of being different.
If I get one, it'll be for th convenience of having all those handy apps, as well as my music, access to wireless internet, GPS, and a gazillion other reasons. "Looking cool in front of my friends" isn't on that list.
In fact I would have bought a 3GS already except that I still can't get over the expense. Right now my cell phone plan is through Fido and I'm paying $27+tax per month (with the system access fee). I'm also NOT on a contract. To jump to an iPhone would mean doubling the fee to $60/month and signing a 3-year contract. And, outside of the "limited time 6GB data special promotion", that $60/month only gets you FIVE HUNDRED MEGABYTES of data!
I really hope that with some added competition, they will drop the price, or at least make the data plan reasonable.
As a data point, I have a friend on Telus pay-as-you-go who is paying $10/month for unlimited "mobile" internet. Sure it's not the "real" internet, but.. she's got access to a lot more than I do right now.
I don't think its a weak reason. I think everyone can agree that they want an iPhone because of its "cool" factor. Even if they don't want to admit it. Of course, like any Apple product (most anyways) the user then realizes why its so cool, not for the design alone but for the functionality.
I'm all for lower prices through competition, but I think if everyone and their grandma has an iPhone, the "cool" factor will be lost. Not saying that the functionality will be.
I guess I've just been dreading the day when Bell gets their hands on the iPhone. Which apparently is today.
that is true.. but its not that my info was for a front page article, it was just some info that goes along with the current rumor. anyway, turned out to be true
This is GREAT news!
I'm with Rogers now and I'm paying for the following which is crazy. I use it for business so I can write it off but these rates compared to what others pay in Europe are disgusting.
Bill Averages $180 per month or over $200 if I go over the 350min limit.
350min of anytime min
Unlimited Incoming Minutes
MY 5 "Unlimited Calls to Any 5 friends of yours"
Unlimited evenings after 6pm
Unlimited Weekends
6GB of DATA per month
2,500 min of call forwarding
call display
visual voicemail
Long Distance of 100minutes for U.S. and Canada calling.
I'm with Rogers now and I'm paying for the following which is crazy. I use it for business so I can write it off but these rates compared to what others pay in Europe are disgusting.
Bill Averages $180 per month or over $200 if I go over the 350min limit.
350min of anytime min
Unlimited Incoming Minutes
MY 5 "Unlimited Calls to Any 5 friends of yours"
Unlimited evenings after 6pm
Unlimited Weekends
6GB of DATA per month
2,500 min of call forwarding
call display
visual voicemail
Long Distance of 100minutes for U.S. and Canada calling.
I guess we'll find out soon enough, but I want to know the extent of this new HSPA coverage, and how the phone will react in the event that you get outside of the coverage zone. As others have mentioned, with the Rogers network, it'll fall back to standard GSM if you leave the HSPA zone. I'm in Edmonton and can pick up the new 302XXX Telus network when doing a scan, but I'll have to go out into the country where I only get GSM coverage and see if I still see the network.
Unless they've been working their butts off, I can't see how they could have upgraded their ENTIRE network to support HSPA. And if they haven't, how are they going to handle the angry customers who can't get reception when they're 30 minutes out of the city (in my case) when HSPA runs out?
Only time will tell I suppose...
Unless they've been working their butts off, I can't see how they could have upgraded their ENTIRE network to support HSPA. And if they haven't, how are they going to handle the angry customers who can't get reception when they're 30 minutes out of the city (in my case) when HSPA runs out?
Only time will tell I suppose...
Won't change a thing
This isn't going to change anything. Bell/Rogers/Telus are a cartel that sets the price of mobile access in Canada. Going from one to another trying to get a better deal is no more successful than going from Saudi Arabia to Iran looking for a better price on oil.
This isn't going to change anything. Bell/Rogers/Telus are a cartel that sets the price of mobile access in Canada. Going from one to another trying to get a better deal is no more successful than going from Saudi Arabia to Iran looking for a better price on oil.
that would be interesting to try..
yup.. it sounds like they have been working their butts off, and overlaying hspa wherever they have cdma coverage, so whenever hspa runs out, most likely cdma or rogers gsm would have run out as well
thats for sure.. pricing from one carrier to another is barely going to be different. but 3G coverage may provide a reason..
If thats really going to be the case then I'll have to applaud Telus/Bell for getting something going so quickly.
I just talked with my Roger's rep. Turns out for $500 I can jump ship. Not bad.
If Bell's bills are significantly less, (at least $20 a month less) I'll jump ship as I'll save money in the long run. Anyone else going to do this with me? My Rogers rep was really recommending against this, but where I work I don't get a damn bar of service. Even if your network is "2 years ahead of theres" it's draconian if I can't get ANY service.
That being said, I have some questions:
1) If I back out of my Roger's contract, paying the $500 or whatever, do I get to keep the iPhone?
2) If I do get to keep it, could I just go to a Bell store and say, here's my iPhone, set me up? Would they require me to start a new contract with them, even if I'm not buying the phone for a subsidized price, or could I just go on Pay As You Go?
3) With Pay As You Go, do I get the same plan offerings as someone on a contract would get?
4) Do we have any information on Bell's plans?
5) Has Bell and Telus MERGED their networks outright, but staying different companies?
6) With Rogers, if I don't have a 3G connection, it drops back to EDGE. I always have -at least- EDGE. With Bell or Telus, will their -whole- CMDA network be upgraded to GSM 3G? Or will it be the same EDGE here, 3G here network clumps? Or are they just making a brand new network, and their network coverage before won't really be the same as it is now? So where they had EDGE before, will now be HSPA 3G?
7) What is faster after this upgrade, Roger's 3G or Bell's HSPA 3G? I think Roger's can only do 7.2MBps, and if Bell can do 21MBps... wow.
I'd REALLY appreciate if someone could answer these relatively simple questions. Please.
If Bell's bills are significantly less, (at least $20 a month less) I'll jump ship as I'll save money in the long run. Anyone else going to do this with me? My Rogers rep was really recommending against this, but where I work I don't get a damn bar of service. Even if your network is "2 years ahead of theres" it's draconian if I can't get ANY service.
That being said, I have some questions:
1) If I back out of my Roger's contract, paying the $500 or whatever, do I get to keep the iPhone?
2) If I do get to keep it, could I just go to a Bell store and say, here's my iPhone, set me up? Would they require me to start a new contract with them, even if I'm not buying the phone for a subsidized price, or could I just go on Pay As You Go?
3) With Pay As You Go, do I get the same plan offerings as someone on a contract would get?
4) Do we have any information on Bell's plans?
5) Has Bell and Telus MERGED their networks outright, but staying different companies?
6) With Rogers, if I don't have a 3G connection, it drops back to EDGE. I always have -at least- EDGE. With Bell or Telus, will their -whole- CMDA network be upgraded to GSM 3G? Or will it be the same EDGE here, 3G here network clumps? Or are they just making a brand new network, and their network coverage before won't really be the same as it is now? So where they had EDGE before, will now be HSPA 3G?
7) What is faster after this upgrade, Roger's 3G or Bell's HSPA 3G? I think Roger's can only do 7.2MBps, and if Bell can do 21MBps... wow.
I'd REALLY appreciate if someone could answer these relatively simple questions. Please.
Factually true, but irrelavent to the question you're responding to, namely the legal status of Virgin Mobile in Canada.
Virgin Mobile started out as a joint venture between Bell Canada and Richard Branson's Virgin Group. Recently, Bell bought out Vrigin Group's interest in the company, so Virgin Mobile Canada is a 100% owned subsidiary of Bell Canada, licensed to use Virgin Group's trademarks. It joins Bell's existing Solo Mobile brand as Bell's second "discount" offering.
Like their parent company Bell, both Virgin and Solo will piggyback on Telus's network without any extra fees to the customer when you travel to an area where Bell doesn't have its own infrastructure.
To get all the other players on the table, there's also Telus. It has its own wholly-owned subsidiary discount brand, called Koodoo Mobile. Both Telus and Koodoo will piggyback on Bell's network without any extra fees to the customer when you travel to an area where Telus doesn't have its own infrastructure.
Then there's Rogers. Its wholly owned discount subsidiary is Fido. They have their own nation-wide infrastructure, and if you happen to travel to an area where neither Rogers nor the formerly independent Fido networks have infrastructure, then you simply don't get any service. (This still commonly happens in parts of rural Nova Scotia, for example.)
It's yet to be seen for certain, but with other carriers opening up HSPA networks in Canada, it's entirely possible that Rogers might try to negotiate its own set of deals to enter into similar infrastructure sharing deals with other carriers to bolster weak spots in its coverage. I'm not sure how likely that would be though... I'd guess it would depend in large part on whether or not there are any areas where Rogers could offer those other carriers extra coverage in return... Around my part of the world, Bell already has universally better coverage.
I just talked with my Roger's rep. Turns out for $500 I can jump ship. Not bad.
If Bell's bills are significantly less, (at least $20 a month less) I'll jump ship as I'll save money in the long run. Anyone else going to do this with me? My Rogers rep was really recommending against this, but where I work I don't get a damn bar of service. Even if your network is "2 years ahead of theres" it's draconian if I can't get ANY service.
That being said, I have some questions:
1) If I back out of my Roger's contract, paying the $500 or whatever, do I get to keep the iPhone?
2) If I do get to keep it, could I just go to a Bell store and say, here's my iPhone, set me up? Would they require me to start a new contract with them, even if I'm not buying the phone for a subsidized price, or could I just go on Pay As You Go?
3) With Pay As You Go, do I get the same plan offerings as someone on a contract would get?
4) Do we have any information on Bell's plans?
5) Has Bell and Telus MERGED their networks outright, but staying different companies?
6) With Rogers, if I don't have a 3G connection, it drops back to EDGE. I always have -at least- EDGE. With Bell or Telus, will their -whole- CMDA network be upgraded to GSM 3G? Or will it be the same EDGE here, 3G here network clumps? Or are they just making a brand new network, and their network coverage before won't really be the same as it is now?
I'd REALLY appreciate if someone could answer these relatively simple questions. Please.
I can answer question 1. If you terminate your contract you can KEEP the iPhone, thats what the termination fee is essentially for, for you to pay off the balance of what you owe on the subsidized phone. As for the other questions, we don't know enough to even hazard a guess. We'll all just have to wait for Telus/Bell to officially launch their networks to get that information.
I just talked with my Roger's rep. Turns out for $500 I can jump ship. Not bad.
If Bell's bills are significantly less, (at least $20 a month less) I'll jump ship as I'll save money in the long run. Anyone else going to do this with me? My Rogers rep was really recommending against this, but where I work I don't get a damn bar of service. Even if your network is "2 years ahead of theres" it's draconian if I can't get ANY service.
That being said, I have some questions:
1) If I back out of my Roger's contract, paying the $500 or whatever, do I get to keep the iPhone?
2) If I do get to keep it, could I just go to a Bell store and say, here's my iPhone, set me up? Would they require me to start a new contract with them, even if I'm not buying the phone for a subsidized price, or could I just go on Pay As You Go?
3) With Pay As You Go, do I get the same plan offerings as someone on a contract would get?
4) Do we have any information on Bell's plans?
5) Has Bell and Telus MERGED their networks outright, but staying different companies?
6) With Rogers, if I don't have a 3G connection, it drops back to EDGE. I always have -at least- EDGE. With Bell or Telus, will their -whole- CMDA network be upgraded to GSM 3G? Or will it be the same EDGE here, 3G here network clumps? Or are they just making a brand new network, and their network coverage before won't really be the same as it is now? So where they had EDGE before, will now be HSPA 3G?
7) What is faster after this upgrade, Roger's 3G or Bell's HSPA 3G? I think Roger's can only do 7.2MBps, and if Bell can do 21MBps... wow.
I'd REALLY appreciate if someone could answer these relatively simple questions. Please.
first off, i doubt we'll see any major differences in pricing. when it comes to pricing, i'd only jump to a company like Wind who is offering to bring a real change. if you have a situation with crappy coverage where you live/work with rogers, then that would be a real reason to change to bell/telus.
1 - you keep the phone
2 - the phone is carrier locked to rogers. unless you jailbreak and unlock it, you cannot just use it on bell/telus. if you were to sign up with bell, you could sell either your current iphone, or the new iphone you buy from bell, and maybe use that to cover your $500 early cancellation from rogers
3 - i dont think so.. most of the good plans theyll want you to sign a 3 year contract to get
4 - no info yet
5 - bell and telus are two separate companies who worked together to build this new hspa network. there is 1 network that they both use
6 - bell/telus have built an hspa network that covers the same area as their cdma network does. most likely you'll always have 3G coverage.. there will be no dropback to edge or gprs
7 - bell/telus network is full hspa+ 21mbps nationwide. rogers has launched 21mbps hspa+ in 5 major cities across the country and are continuing to upgrade.. theyre still continuing to get any 3g/hspa to areas that only have edge.
Telus/Bell do not operate a GSM network, only HSPA. Thus all voice and data calls will be over HSPA. The only thing that is open to question is the extent of their HSPA network coverage.
Thank you so much!!
I am switching ASAP then.
My game plan will likely be as follows. One month before new iPhone comes out, sell iPhone 3G S, as it will still be the "current" iPhone hence raking in a lot of money. Last time I sold I got $400 for an 8GB iPhone 3G, so I reckon I'll get about $400 for this one as well.
Once I get money, end Rogers contract outright. I'll probably actually break even.
When Apple announces new iPhone fourth generation, run to a Bell store (or hopefully camp out, I love doing that) and buy the iPhone fourth generation with amazing amazingness. Sign up for a three year contract with Bell and their awesome service, and booyah.
I am so stoked. I have to drive two and a half hours away from where I live to even get a BAR of 3G service. Where I live I have to use EDGE every second of the day, it's painful. The prospect that I could not only have 3G everywhere Bell offers service (and where I live Eastern Canada it is damn well blanketed in service, you never get less than five bars on Bell where I live) I'll get a 21MBps 3G connection, up from 7.2MBps when I had to drive two and a half hours out of town.
AND I get Telus' network too.
I love you Canada. I can't wait for this summer now. I hope the new iPhone gets a cosmetic makeover.
Wow, I really am an Apple geek. I've had every iPhone generation so far, and I wasn't planning on it, but now I guess I'm getting the 4th gen too.