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Holy crapoly Batman...this is good news. All my family has an iPhone except me because one of us has to stay with Bell to get reception at our cottage.

Come fall however, I know what I am going to do...Happy Birthday to meeeeee......

Buster,

The Bell coverage won't be the same as what it is today. They'd be converting to GSM, what Rogers/FIDO offers now.

WhooHoo, Canada is going to have some competition.

Good. Rogers needs competition.

Jun 29, 09 - 09:26 pm Comment from: Zune Tang®

Cry me a river, Buster. Boo-hoo. You can't have the same dumpy overpriced toy phone the rest of the MAC fangirls parade around the great white north. Whaaaaahhhhh. Boo-hoo-hoo. You have to wait until fall to get your burp and fart apps. How will you survive?

Meanwhile there are loads of Windows Mobile phones for grown ups available on a multitude of carriers. It's called giving people choice, unlike proprietary MAC and their flash in the pan button-challenged paperweight that can't edit Excel or Word documents.

Your potential. Our passion.™

Meanwhile, I just keep editing Word and Excel documents in my iPhone everyday. There are several apps for that. In my case I use QuickOffice. Who is this Zune Tang®? This guy is a joke or a kid lol.

Jun 29, 09 - 10:02 pm Comment from: disposableidentity

Zune Tang is full of wisdom. Don't doubt the man from Redmond.

Even if Iphones hit the Telus/Bell Canada I bet no one really cares. The look and feel of the current Iphone is no different than it's predecessor. Besides Windows Mobile are the future not Iphones simply it's made by Apple.

Look at them they have been in the mobile business for over 3 years and exaggerating about how great their mobile platform is.

http://www.bing.com When it comes to decisions that matter, Bing & Decide

Jun 29, 09 - 10:09 pm Comment from: The Other Steve

"To the victor belongs the spoils."

If by spoils you mean lower price and better experience for the end user then yes.

When the music industry tried to raise music prices, Apple fought back. Industry writers used this as an example of how Apple was abusing their monopoly.

If the cell companies had their way we would be paying monthly for every ringtone and song on our phones.

I have detested Rogers business model and attitude for years. I am certainly glad for the competition now.

Sign a petition: Rogers - Charge per byte

Jun 29, 09 - 10:41 pm Comment from: Frank

Before jumping..ok ok..hopping with joy, I wantt to see the so-called contract. If Bell/Telus come up with a harda$$ 3 year contract and/or a pittance of data allotment , they're no better than Ro(bb)ers.

@Canadian....but wouldn't Bell be using their own towers? The cottage is in a dead spot that Roger's cannot reach but Bell just makes it.

@ZT....fart and burp apps on an iPhone are music to my ears unlike listening to the curses of people wondering why WIndows Mobile why they were stupid enough to buy such a piece of zune-colored, tapered shyte.

Will all Zune Tang imposters go away please? One fellow is quite enough to express displeasure and disbelief in Apple's success.

Jun 29, 09 - 11:37 pm Comment from: GregoriusM

If Telus goes with a TWO year contract, I'm all over it.

I doubt they will, but if they do, Rogers will HAVE to do the same. And that's the way it should be. There is NO REASON why Rogers cannot do the same deal as AT&T;which is amortizing the phone over TWO years, and not THREE!

Rogers charges more than enough to make back the iPhone's cost in those TWO years, as does AT&T;, BUT they have a monopoly on the iPhone right now.

So, HOPEFULLY Telus will come out with a TWO year contract, that reflects the rates of AT&T;(lower would be better obviously) and still make the kind of money that AT&T;is making in the U.S.

If AT&T;can do it in a two-year contract, then so can a Canadian company.

DO IT, TELUS!!! TWO YEAR CONTRACT!!!

Thanks for listening, kids!

Greg

Jun 29, 09 - 11:40 pm Comment from: GregoriusM

Can't we all just get along? Why, when a person uses the "&" character, does it screw things up on many site on the internet.

Not just posting, but reading some sites?

Let's make up and have our browsers display the proper characters. I did not put ; after AT&T;. (It probably will put them after AT&T;again! Doh!)

/rant over

Jun 29, 09 - 11:51 pm Comment from: db

Whooo freaking hoo!!!!!!

I've been enslaved to Bell Mobility since 1996. It was only during my last 3 year contract (that turned into a 4 year contract due to a technicality that I didn't fully understand) that the law changed so I could keep my long-held cell phone number when changing companies.

My contract expired 50 minutes ago, and I'm now a free agent. Bell Mobility made a valiant attempt at keeping me by offering everything I wanted for a family plan at 76 dollars a month, but with this news on the horizon, the idea of remaining a free agent while the phone companies battle it out for customers really, *really* appeals to me.

Koodo, here I come! (for now...) When the dust settles, then we'll get iPhones in this family (FINALLY!)

Oh and one more thing...

Zunie... nice to see you back to your old level of snappiness.

Jun 30, 09 - 12:52 am Comment from: GRANDxADMIRAL

ATTN Saskatchewan:

This includes SaskTel as well. We were chatting with a sales rep today, and she says SaskTel is following suit, with an technology overlay to the existing network that will be the same as EDGE on Rogers.

This is great news, because Saskatchewan has the WORST Rogers coverage in the country, less Nunavut, and come fall (actually probably later than that for SaskTel) Rogers will be losing all of the iPhone converts back to the Crown Company.

Jun 30, 09 - 12:56 am Comment from: GRANDxADMIRAL

....also, be glad ye nation, because if you're on Telus or Bell and you travel to Saskatchewan, guess who's cell towers you're connecting to? Yep, there's only two company towers in SK - Rogers, and SaskTel. Bell and Telus contract the SaskTel towers out - So, we can probably expect the upgrade at the same time.

Jun 30, 09 - 01:44 am Comment from: DanielM

The only way you can get a BlackBerry® Storm™ 9530 from Bell is with a 3-year contract.

There won't be any difference in charges between Rogers and Bell, just like there is virtually none today. The wording may be different, but the total costs won't.

Jun 30, 09 - 01:51 am Comment from: GregoriusM

Well then I'm probably "wishing on a star" that Telus will go to a 2-year contract.

Well then, possibly greater coverage with Telus will be something that will take me to them rather than Rogers.

I'll have to check the Telus map, but I know that MTS coverage here in Manitoba extends out just enough farther than Rogers in the areas I need for me to stick with MTS for now. (CDMA).

If the Telus coverage is better, I'd go with Telus, all else being equal.

I'd also like better coverage in the area from a bit east of the Manitoba border for a fair stretch going to Thunder Bay, ON. Going to check Telus on that right now.

My first iPhone purchase will be next year's version, so everything should be well in place by then I hope.

Mind you, the roll out for Telus will probably start in Vancouver, then work its way across Canada, so I doubt Manitoba will be near the front as far as conversion is concerned.

Again, hopefully for next summer I'll at least have a choice of carriers for the iPhone. One of them is bound to be a wee bit better for where I live.

G.

Yes Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus!

Jun 30, 09 - 08:18 am Comment from: mike k.

3 year contracts make no sense given the rate of obsolescence of cell phone technology. the trap is that with shorter contracts they have less time to make up the subsidies so the cost of the phone will be higher for the consumer. my guess is that most people would rather opt for a cheaper phone, or pay more for a premium handset, in order to get out of 3 year commitments.

Jun 30, 09 - 09:26 am Comment from: Big Als MBP

I'll take the first 2 year contract with unlimited data that anybody offers. I don't care if it's Telus, Bell or Rogers.

I've used all 3. Telus is the easiest to work with but they are all greedy bastards.

Jun 30, 09 - 10:22 am Comment from: Road Warrior

Way to go Telus. I like their attitude at least from my experience with them (before the BC tel merger). It's great now that Canadians have some choices.

Those iPhones are hot.

Jun 30, 09 - 10:43 am Comment from: Troy

Hopefully this is true!

I want me some IPhone!

I think so many Windows Mobile users have such an inferiority complex when it comes to other phones it is laughable. Almost everyone I've run across on the internet is hopping up and down yelling me too while other people fawn over iPhones, Blackberrys and Android handsets. Can WinMo do everything iPhone can do? Yeah, probably. But does it do it with any type of flair or style? No. WinMo devices are pretty far removed from being anything near slick in their implementation. Most people I've known who have a WinMo handset wish they could throw it through a wall, so take that for what you will.

Jun 30, 09 - 12:12 pm Comment from: mossman

More competition = good, but it's mostly smoke and mirrors. Bell also ties smartphones to 3-year contracts (some can be reduced to 2 years, but the cost is way out of proportion to the subsidy), don't know about Telus.

Not only that, each carrier either one-ups or matches the bad practices of the other (e.g.: charging for incoming SMS). They *all* charge extra for drop-dead basic features like caller ID, which is free on almost all pay-as-you-go phones!

I would've picked up an iPhone on Friday if there'd been any supply left in Canada. Even with this rumour I probably won't wait--I have no confidence there'll be a meaningful, competitive edge anytime soon.

WIll this be the first country to offer the iPhone to two customers?

Apple didn't get all the concessions it wanted with Rogers... because they're the only GSM player in town.

As a consequence, Rogers got its 3-year contract and didn't get exclusivity (because it didn't need it).

The Telus/Bell network can't come soon enough.

Jun 30, 09 - 02:11 pm Comment from: disposableidentity

@jamEs, Agreed. I haven't heard anything about Windows Mobile in a long time. They might still be selling them, but I don't know who's buying.

Honestly I think Microsoft is out of this race for a while.

Jun 30, 09 - 02:14 pm Comment from: disposableidentity

I should add that at this point all my PC friends are buying iPhones, or Blackberrys. The programmers / Linux-types I know are buying Android phones.

Jun 30, 09 - 06:22 pm Comment from: GregoriusM

I think Australia has THREE iPhone carriers, IIRC.