Well that's greatly encouraging. Even if you do sign up now for a 3yr iPhone, it should mean at the end of that you can switch. Who knows maybe Bell & Telus will even offer to buy out your contract to gain your custom. Thinking outloud, but how about "Sign up to Telus GSM and get a $200 account credit" or "free for 6 months" or something else which means you still pay your Robbers $30 a month, but you can switch.
Ok, time to sit down, I can't believe Canada is heading in 2010 to a place where the UK was almost 10 years previously!
guru
· 1 year ago
hey smart ass the UK can't compare in geographical footprint thus can implement cutting edge technolgies over night for minmal cost
Stewart Marshall
· 1 year ago
So the sole limiting factor of 'cutting edge technology' is it's geographical reach?
Canada has not even implemented 10-20 year old technology properly in limited areas - i.e. GSM into major urban centres, such as Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal that should even geographically be easier to manage.
Capacity is a major issue so I would argue that allowing Millions of people in the same small space is more of a challenge than Canada faces geographically. In many parts of the world cellular networks are rolled out quickly because it is so efficient. Some of these countries in Africa and South America may not be as 'large' as Canada but they do demonstrate it can be done.
My comment about the UK was more about the fact that competition has driven down prices, regardless of the technological challenges. In Canada there is no competition and as a country we miss that opportunity.
In many ways Canada shares the same mindset as the UK. It likes to portray itself as part of the elite nations (think G7 here) and yet the realities are more similar to developing nations such as India or China. Cellphones are but one small illustration of this, be it in the scheme of things an irrelevant one.
Justin
· 1 year ago
So um, gotta source ? Or was this a local Telus dealer who heard it on the subway ? ;-)
acurrie
· 1 year ago
Yeah, this is pretty amazing news but could definitely use some substantiation...
Sameer Vasta
· 1 year ago
I thought Telus would wait it out for LTE, but to be honest, the faster we have competition for Rogers, the better. Thanks for the good news.
visco9
· 1 year ago
YES!!! this is amazing news. I really do hope it is true. I am with Robbers now for the sole reason that they are GSM and they certainly have me cornered in terms of alternatives. New GSM entrants plus Bell GSM = better service prices for Canadians!
Jevon
· 1 year ago
They may as well eat the bullet now and get it done.
WirelessNorth
· 1 year ago
Let's call it a local Telus dealer who heard it on the subway
But then, I'm sure there's a few other sharp-eared readers who've been riding that same train. So to speak. Feel free to let us know ;)
WirelessGuy
· 1 year ago
It's waaaaay more interesting than simply Bell and TELUS switching to GSM (and yes, it's happening). They are both going through handset and infrastructure RFP's now.
Think about *how* they're going to do it, and therein lies the good stuff. :-)
Soda_Popinski
· 1 year ago
Seems obvious this will be a joint venture. Bell builds its network in the East and Telus in West. Expect more joint ventures between the 2. Express Vu is next on the list. Sell half of these assets to them and run it jointly.
WirelessGuy
· 1 year ago
Very close, but not quite.
Rob Hyndman
· 1 year ago
"We love the smell of competition in the morning". Nice.
willpate
· 1 year ago
I love what passes for "competition" in Canada ;)
nakoda
· 1 year ago
fantastic.
I think I was on that train, but in a different car. :o
funny thing happened, the car filled with a greenish white light and then my phone got service...
RML
· 1 year ago
This is no surprise. How much longer do (Bell/Telus) want Rogers to dominate with a virtual GSM/UMTS/HSPA monopoly?
Christian
· 1 year ago
Plausible, but I'll believe it when they announce it, and until then it's just more of the same: Globalive is out of the auction, Niagara Networks is T-Mobile, Rogers is offering an unlimited data plan for the iPhone, Jim Prentice wears women's clothing and sings showtunes whilst reviewing the spectrum auction proceed figures... the list is endless.
Looking at some of Bell's early targets in the auction, it could also have been said that they were patching up holes or weaknesses in their network - some also theorized that this was because they were falling out with Telus over roaming their arrangements, which runs counter to comments about this being a joint venture with the big T. Of course the GSM overlay is plausible, and has been rumoured for a while, and honestly it probably makes more sense for them to spin up some infrastructure to do a sane and well thought out migration. Of course the one thing that doesn't jive with all of this is how Bell's new masters feel about this plan of action. With Bell hurting as badly as they are, and with the nature of the privatization activity souring somewhat in recent months, the new ownership is doubtlessly looking to streamline (read: gut) parts of the business immediately to steady their investment, and this plan, involving some pretty serious capital seems to run counter to that philosophy. But hey, they bid, so clearly that was already an expectation that was set. How much more was decided upon up front, one can only speculate.
Telus, I'd be much more likely to believe on their own. Watching a clip of their CTO bashfully delicline to talk about the auction while still geeking out over the 'exciting possibilities ahead' a few weeks back seemed to be in line with their gentle, but not too convincing assurances that they are "constantly reviewing all of their options" while not-so-secretly looking into GSM fairly seriously (and noisily, one might add). Also they're no stranger to leveraging themselves significantly (investors be damned) when they're convinced they're making the right move (see: Clearnet acqustion....).
Either way, this should be interesting, but it's a huge capital investment with, from what I can glean, no real benefit for the consumer at the end of it from a service cost perspective. On the contrary, like the spectrum, someone will have to pay for it, and that someone is you and I! At least we'll all have nicer phones though, right? (this would be the bit where I start a spurious rumour of my own, this one about Bell's System Access Fee going up to $11.95/m to cover the cost of license fees).
Anyhow, the cynic in me doesn't care what network I'm on if I'm still getting financially and contractually screwed by one of our fine national carriers, flashy phone or not.
Ken Seto
· 1 year ago
Great news all around! Too bad I've already been Rogered 'til 2011. :P
Christian
· 1 year ago
It's finally over! And not a round too soon. $4.25 Billion dollars later, and it seems that we will finally get to move on to the next stage of the game.
Telus won't comment on its plans for 30 days it has said, Shaw has done up a press release (http://www.shaw.ca/en-ca/AboutShaw/Media/Curren...), and the others seem quiet so far... Should be interesting.
Now everyone needs to cough up the cash, IC needs to validate Canadian ownership - and we're off!
Lee
· 1 year ago
Gee, maybe we won't have to pay LD charges to receive (or make) calls outside our local calling area in our own country (just like most other mobile customers around the world). We need a lot more competition (read players, not just "same company, different name"). Perhaps the move to GSM and the addition of a fourth national company will help eliminate extra charges for caller-id, voicemail, roaming, "system access fee's" and other hidden (oh, you want that too, that's extra) charges. I really hope that this is a shake-up for the industry, prices should be going down , not up, for mobile services.
Jimmy Choo
· 1 year ago
2010?!?! My Telus contract is up at in December, and I want GSM asap! Goodbye Telus, a bit too late
Mike Admans
· 8 months ago
GSM fast becoming a world standard??? It always was, having been around for years before CDMA was developed. Very few countries bothered with CDMA which was, at the start, greatly inferior to GSM and had poor battery performance on the handsets. There are more than 3.7 billion users on GSM and expanding literally by the second (see the GSM World website) while the number of locations using CDMA is actually diminishing.
Vancouver604
· 6 months ago
Telus/BELL SUCK!
I've been with Telus before and for a very long time. Their cellular network is the pits. EVERYTIME I'm at Metrotown or at my friend's place on ground floor, there is a dead zone. No signal whatsoever! I've complained to them for 2 years and no result. And their billing is always wrong. Always overcharging me for calls that are suppose to be free on the evenings and weekends.
After switching to Rogers, my calls are at Metrotown and my friends were perfect. No dead zone. I get calls even when I am below underground! Billings were all good with Rogers. No overcharge issues.
Telus, just die off will ya?
noname
· 5 months ago
I just hate how Canadians self defend themselves … because they are one of the MOST RETARDED Countries in the World, when it comes to Wireless and other IT technologies…
Yeah…blame that your country is BIG…but inhabitable…..and not the fact that the majority of population retarded and undereducated….
When I came here..I was just amazed to hear that Canadians believe that the time (hour) setting on their devices (cell phone terminals) it is coming from satellite… In Canadian mentality, they have satellite cell phone (GSM and CDMA it is a satellite-based system…
IF you want facts, I can give you many facts that will proof my point…
Another country in the world with ONE “Only ONE” GSM network is CUBA… (Ok they can justify that the socialism is at fault there… what excuse Canadians Have? Either they are RETARDED…or SOCIALISTS ...?!?!?! – You pick one…
Toronto Subway System does not have GSM coverage ….Why...? It’s not a big Subway system….it’s small really small..
Because the System is forced to work-in an environment with a Political Corrupt System… similar with CUBA….where Rogers Paid enough to Political parties’ to cover his a#s and keep this market retarded… Ok it’s not you fault…but …You are retarded…
Canada Wireless coverage it’s around 70 %....Ohhh Huge ai ?
Europe and Asia over 100 % …
Just Shut Up … drink Tim Horton’s… and eat the crap that media feeds you day by day….
Life in Canada…Retarded Country of G8 Family…
happy canada day
· 5 months ago
hey noname...your english is very poor. you should proof read (proof... i think you ment to spell prove read..read your message...)your messages before you hit send. i love how these immigrants move to our really shitty country and come to complane because were not more like there 3rd world country. you left your country for a really good reason. if the cell phones are so great in cuba...move back!!!!
Better than you
· 5 months ago
Speaking of RETARDED, noname your English is terrible. Go back to the shitty little country where you originated from. You're a complete embarrassment to Canada. By the way the word is UNinhabitable, dumbass.. Save up your precious pennies and buy a fucking dictionary!
Bill
· 5 months ago
Noname, most people seem to be just fine in Canada. If you don't like it here, get out.
Actually, every CDMA tower has GPS and it DOES get the time from the satellites, which is then sent down to the CDMA cell phones.
As for the coverage area versus the size of the country, it is a function of the population density.
Europe and Asia also have people everywhere, it stands to reason that their cell phone coverage is comparable.
It sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder. Nowhere in the world is perfect - but there are a lot of places in which most people would be happy.
It is looking as if you would not be happy anywhere.
Bill
· 5 months ago
Also, Noname, although Toronto's subway system may not have GSM coverage, I notice that also to be true in London. In Paris it works.
Colin_Pye
· 2 months ago
Maybe my math is a little off, but how can you get more than 100% coverage?
If I have a cake, and you take 100% of it, then you have it all, there's no more to take!
Retarded indeed.
AwesomEricc
· 4 months ago
Listen, Telus is launching their GSM 4G (Yes, that's right, 4G not 3G) network in late September 2009. Most new Telus phone are already GSM compatable, but not active. In September 2009 all phone, will be accepting a Telus Sim Card. Meaning you can buy any unlocked phone from eBay (etc.) and use it with Telus. Also, to Stewart Marshall, Telus, as per most cell phone companies, does not buy out contracts from other companies. Also, Telus will not be waiting the usual 6months time to offer a phone that Rogers or Fido offered earlier, but quite the opposite.
Hope this helped,
AwesomEricc
Stewart Marshall
· 4 months ago
Well the competition will be welcome, that much is certain. However, did I hear that Telus was doing everything it could to hold up a new entrant Globallive(?) getting to a launch?
Telus/Rogers, it's all pretty much the same. A year from my previous comments on this thread and accepting Telus may only be a couple of months away, I will be curious to see if either company tries to focus on customer service as a differentiator.
My point about buying out contracts was simply an observation that it comes down to money, there are many ways of framing the deal.
Adam Vallee
· 4 months ago
HSPA is Not GSM... HSPA is a DATA Layer of WCDMA (or CDMA 2000++ That Bell and Telus Already use) GSM Phones do not work on a WCDMA/CDMA/CDMA2000++ NETWORK This article is bogus.
MJ
· 3 months ago
They are going GSM for the Olympics. Rumor has it that they will be GSM by September 2009
Name
· 2 months ago
Apparently, the announcement will be in October. from Bell anyway, with new devices as well.
guest
· 3 months ago
with all this being said then i think its ok to say virgin mobile will go gsm as well
Colin_Pye
· 2 months ago
Let's see... back when everything was analog, GSM was supposed to give 3 calls in the same airspace that could handle 1 in AMPS. CDMA handled 10, compared to 1 in AMPS. So, the greatly inferior technology gets better than 3 times the capacity of the "superior" technology? Those 3.7 billion people are using the resources that could support over 12 BILLION people with CDMA technology. What happens in denser urban calling areas when Bell and Telus reduce their network capacity by 2/3?
Then there's the issue of handoffs, where your call is handled by one tower under GSM, while CDMA keeps your call suspended like a fly in a spider web, with up to 5 towers holding onto your call at the same time. If you are mountain climbing, which do you prefer, one safety line that isn't always connected, or up to 5, so that if one fails, there are others to support you?
Of course, in the end, the next version of GSM is being built on CDMA technology anyway, so it's a switch back to where you started from. And the RUIM (CDMA's SIM Card) will work in GSM phones too. Only thing, Telus, Bell, and friends haven't bothered to use RUIMs in Canada, even though they have sold some phones with the card space for years (The Nokia 6275i is just one example, although the carrier's programming disabled the slot, just like the carriers like to disable Bluetooth functionality.)
kev
· 2 months ago
Let's see... superior technology always beats out WHAT THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE USE, doesn't it? Last I checked, there weren't 3.7B people in Canada. Try making a point that's actually relevant to the fucking conversation, instead of sounding like a cheesed-off ex-Nortel employee who's bitter that the majority of telcos out there chose something else. Having access to a selection of phones that numbers more than 6 is awesome. I don't care what the superior technology is, I want a phone that actually meets my needs and that I can use with another provider's plan whenever I want. That means using what most carriers use, regardless of the merits of technology.
I'm happy that the dominant carriers will actually be competing in the same arena, instead of running separate leagues. It might actually change some things, but I certainly won't hold my breath there.
00002
· 2 months ago
I'm with Fido since they came to Canada. Telus Lied to me several times that thair system goes worlg wide and that was in 1996 I went with fido because of GSM. I had telus before 1996 and they charged an arm and a leg. fido always charged by the second. I did not like that Rogers bought Fido but it is still sesrate from Rogers, fido still bills by the second. Bell and Telus only go GSM now because they loose the Battle, They can't fool people no more ,people are more educated about GSM. Telus and Bell only held on to CDMA and TDMA to have the customers by the short and curlies. I have Intergrety, and Pricipals Telus and Bell did not offer GSM to me for the last 14 years, only to server their own Interests. Therefore I stay with Fido. I'm not selling my self out. I own 6 different GSM Phones and I use the on different ocasions, all unlocked and all bought from Hongkong.I also get of the plane in Europe or in Cuba and my phone works btw. all of us had problems with all copanies, one is not btter then the other. But i hated that telus bought Clearnet and then finished it off.I hate Bell for the Charges I have on my workphone and Sat TV. Let's not reward thoose companies because they finally gave in, in the rest of the World and using GSM.It is not to serve you. it is to serve them selve
Kris
· 2 months ago
Does anybody remember the Beta Vhs war?
JOHN DOLIEY
· 1 month ago
um there launching it tomorrow so ya change your website Thanks
youreallyhavenoclue
· 1 month ago
Hey John,
thanks for the useless post, next time don't!
Wow you can go back to old posts and find things that didn't pan out the way they could have. The internet NEEDS more useless people like you telling other people even MORE useless things.
And in line with you useless comments, they launched a day a part so your not even right
AND you used the wrong 'they're' (thats the right one goofball)
J Connor
· 1 month ago
It seams that Bell's GSM supports only HSPA. this means that support is only for handsets that support HSPA. Older GSM Phones will not work...eg. iphone 2g will not work, Motorola Razr v3 will not work... and so on and so on.... Perhaps the network in vancouver will support GSM (1G/2G)?????
telussucks
· 2 weeks ago
CONFIRMED doesnt work on Motorola RAZR V3
WirelessNorth
· 2 weeks ago
Thanks for the confirmation, looks like you need a true HSPA handset to play on the new network.
All Comments
Ok, time to sit down, I can't believe Canada is heading in 2010 to a place where the UK was almost 10 years previously!
Canada has not even implemented 10-20 year old technology properly in limited areas - i.e. GSM into major urban centres, such as Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal that should even geographically be easier to manage.
Capacity is a major issue so I would argue that allowing Millions of people in the same small space is more of a challenge than Canada faces geographically. In many parts of the world cellular networks are rolled out quickly because it is so efficient. Some of these countries in Africa and South America may not be as 'large' as Canada but they do demonstrate it can be done.
My comment about the UK was more about the fact that competition has driven down prices, regardless of the technological challenges. In Canada there is no competition and as a country we miss that opportunity.
In many ways Canada shares the same mindset as the UK. It likes to portray itself as part of the elite nations (think G7 here) and yet the realities are more similar to developing nations such as India or China. Cellphones are but one small illustration of this, be it in the scheme of things an irrelevant one.
But then, I'm sure there's a few other sharp-eared readers who've been riding that same train. So to speak. Feel free to let us know ;)
Think about *how* they're going to do it, and therein lies the good stuff. :-)
Expect more joint ventures between the 2. Express Vu is next on the list. Sell half of these assets to them and run it jointly.
I think I was on that train, but in a different car. :o
funny thing happened, the car filled with a greenish white light and then my phone got service...
Looking at some of Bell's early targets in the auction, it could also have been said that they were patching up holes or weaknesses in their network - some also theorized that this was because they were falling out with Telus over roaming their arrangements, which runs counter to comments about this being a joint venture with the big T. Of course the GSM overlay is plausible, and has been rumoured for a while, and honestly it probably makes more sense for them to spin up some infrastructure to do a sane and well thought out migration. Of course the one thing that doesn't jive with all of this is how Bell's new masters feel about this plan of action. With Bell hurting as badly as they are, and with the nature of the privatization activity souring somewhat in recent months, the new ownership is doubtlessly looking to streamline (read: gut) parts of the business immediately to steady their investment, and this plan, involving some pretty serious capital seems to run counter to that philosophy. But hey, they bid, so clearly that was already an expectation that was set. How much more was decided upon up front, one can only speculate.
Telus, I'd be much more likely to believe on their own. Watching a clip of their CTO bashfully delicline to talk about the auction while still geeking out over the 'exciting possibilities ahead' a few weeks back seemed to be in line with their gentle, but not too convincing assurances that they are "constantly reviewing all of their options" while not-so-secretly looking into GSM fairly seriously (and noisily, one might add). Also they're no stranger to leveraging themselves significantly (investors be damned) when they're convinced they're making the right move (see: Clearnet acqustion....).
Either way, this should be interesting, but it's a huge capital investment with, from what I can glean, no real benefit for the consumer at the end of it from a service cost perspective. On the contrary, like the spectrum, someone will have to pay for it, and that someone is you and I! At least we'll all have nicer phones though, right? (this would be the bit where I start a spurious rumour of my own, this one about Bell's System Access Fee going up to $11.95/m to cover the cost of license fees).
Anyhow, the cynic in me doesn't care what network I'm on if I'm still getting financially and contractually screwed by one of our fine national carriers, flashy phone or not.
Telus won't comment on its plans for 30 days it has said, Shaw has done up a press release (http://www.shaw.ca/en-ca/AboutShaw/Media/Curren...), and the others seem quiet so far... Should be interesting.
Now everyone needs to cough up the cash, IC needs to validate Canadian ownership - and we're off!
Very few countries bothered with CDMA which was, at the start, greatly inferior to GSM and had poor battery performance
on the handsets. There are more than 3.7 billion users on GSM and expanding literally by the second (see the GSM World website) while the number of locations using CDMA is actually diminishing.
I've been with Telus before and for a very long time. Their cellular network is the pits. EVERYTIME I'm at Metrotown or at my friend's place on ground floor, there is a dead zone. No signal whatsoever! I've complained to them for 2 years and no result. And their billing is always wrong. Always overcharging me for calls that are suppose to be free on the evenings and weekends.
After switching to Rogers, my calls are at Metrotown and my friends were perfect. No dead zone. I get calls even when I am below underground! Billings were all good with Rogers. No overcharge issues.
Telus, just die off will ya?
technologies…
Yeah…blame that your country is BIG…but inhabitable…..and not the fact that the majority of population retarded and undereducated….
When I came here..I was just amazed to hear that Canadians believe that the time (hour) setting on their devices (cell phone terminals) it is coming from satellite…
In Canadian mentality, they have satellite cell phone (GSM and CDMA it is a satellite-based system…
IF you want facts, I can give you many facts that will proof my point…
Another country in the world with ONE “Only ONE” GSM network is CUBA…
(Ok they can justify that the socialism is at fault there… what excuse Canadians Have? Either they are RETARDED…or SOCIALISTS ...?!?!?! – You pick one…
Toronto Subway System does not have GSM coverage ….Why...?
It’s not a big Subway system….it’s small really small..
Because the System is forced to work-in an environment with a Political Corrupt System… similar with CUBA….where Rogers Paid enough to Political parties’ to cover his a#s and keep this market retarded…
Ok it’s not you fault…but …You are retarded…
Canada Wireless coverage it’s around 70 %....Ohhh Huge ai ?
Europe and Asia over 100 % …
Just Shut Up … drink Tim Horton’s… and eat the crap that media feeds you day by day….
Life in Canada…Retarded Country of G8 Family…
Actually, every CDMA tower has GPS and it DOES get the time from the satellites, which is then sent down to the CDMA cell phones.
As for the coverage area versus the size of the country, it is a function of the population density.
Europe and Asia also have people everywhere, it stands to reason that their cell phone coverage is comparable.
It sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder. Nowhere in the world is perfect - but there are a lot of places in which most people would be happy.
It is looking as if you would not be happy anywhere.
If I have a cake, and you take 100% of it, then you have it all, there's no more to take!
Retarded indeed.
Hope this helped,
AwesomEricc
Telus/Rogers, it's all pretty much the same. A year from my previous comments on this thread and accepting Telus may only be a couple of months away, I will be curious to see if either company tries to focus on customer service as a differentiator.
My point about buying out contracts was simply an observation that it comes down to money, there are many ways of framing the deal.
Then there's the issue of handoffs, where your call is handled by one tower under GSM, while CDMA keeps your call suspended like a fly in a spider web, with up to 5 towers holding onto your call at the same time. If you are mountain climbing, which do you prefer, one safety line that isn't always connected, or up to 5, so that if one fails, there are others to support you?
Of course, in the end, the next version of GSM is being built on CDMA technology anyway, so it's a switch back to where you started from. And the RUIM (CDMA's SIM Card) will work in GSM phones too. Only thing, Telus, Bell, and friends haven't bothered to use RUIMs in Canada, even though they have sold some phones with the card space for years (The Nokia 6275i is just one example, although the carrier's programming disabled the slot, just like the carriers like to disable Bluetooth functionality.)
I'm happy that the dominant carriers will actually be competing in the same arena, instead of running separate leagues. It might actually change some things, but I certainly won't hold my breath there.
Telus Lied to me several times that thair system goes worlg wide and that was in 1996
I went with fido because of GSM. I had telus before 1996 and they charged an arm and a leg. fido always charged by the second. I did not like that Rogers bought Fido but it is still sesrate from Rogers, fido still bills by the second.
Bell and Telus only go GSM now because they loose the Battle, They can't fool people no more ,people are more educated about GSM. Telus and Bell only held on to CDMA and TDMA to have the customers by the short and curlies.
I have Intergrety, and Pricipals Telus and Bell did not offer GSM to me for the last 14 years, only to server their own Interests. Therefore I stay with Fido. I'm not selling my self out. I own 6 different GSM Phones and I use the on different ocasions, all unlocked and all bought from Hongkong.I also get of the plane in Europe or in Cuba and my phone works
btw. all of us had problems with all copanies, one is not btter then the other. But i hated that telus bought Clearnet and then finished it off.I hate Bell for the Charges I have on my workphone and Sat TV. Let's not reward thoose companies because they finally gave in, in the rest of the World and using GSM.It is not to serve you. it is to serve them selve
Thanks
thanks for the useless post, next time don't!
Wow you can go back to old posts and find things that didn't pan out the way they could have. The internet NEEDS more useless people like you telling other people even MORE useless things.
And in line with you useless comments, they launched a day a part so your not even right
AND you used the wrong 'they're' (thats the right one goofball)