Bell / Telus HSPA Network launches
It’s been a long time coming, but as we covered before, the new high speed wireless network from Bell and Telus officially launches today. The HSPA+ network supports speeds up to 42Mbit down and 22Mbit up, although the fastest phones being launched support 7.2Mbit. It’s a new standard, which means it’s not backwards compatible with their CDMA network (which will stay online for some time to come). It’s a two day announcement, with Bell going public today, and Telus tomorrow.
Though it means a lot a new phone options, don’t expect the roll out to mean new competitive prices in the mobile landscape…
The HSPA+ network was originally scheduled to launch to coincide with the Vancouver 2010 Olypmics, but the two CDMA carriers actually managed to do something faster than expected (yeah, we’re all surprised there). Getting it done almost two months before Christmas will probably help as well.
With the introduction of the network comes global network support with the addition of SIM cards, something the old CDMA network didn’t support. Though a minority of people actually travel outside Canada, for those that do, having world coverage will make a huge deal. From personal experience, one of the toughest things for me was to give up my SIM when I switched from Fido a couple of years ago.
The two carriers will be carrying the iPhone 3GS, ending Rogers exclusive deal. As it stands, Bell’s pricing of the iPhone 3GS is identical to Rogers offering, and we can expect Telus to be the same. Bell’s announced iPhone plans are also very similar to Rogers, though they do bookend the similar plans with both a cheaper plan and a more power user oriented one.
Beyond the iPhone, Bell is bringing a number of interesting smart phones to the new network. One phone that I’m personally interested in is the Windows Mobile 6.5 Samsung Omnia II, with an 800×480 AMOLED screen and 5MP dual flash camera, 16GB of internal memory expandable with a MicroSD slot and much more. It also supports quadband GSM support as well as dual band HSPA+/UMTS, so will work well outside the country.
As mentioned above, the pricing of the smart phone plans is disappointing, but not surprising. Now that the major carriers are on a more even playing ground technologically speaking, it’s easier to comparison shop, and in the end, there’s not much of a difference. Bell and Telus promise a larger network (and if past experience is any indicator, that’s probably true). Once Telus makes it’s announcement, there’ll definitely be more to talk about, but it’s going to take some of the new entrants in the Canadian mobile space to really shake up phone rates. That is, if they can re-structure to meet Canadian ownership regulations, right Globalive?
Oh man, bring on GlobalLive.
No 6gb option and a guaranteed tethering fee means I’m still stuck with Rogers.
Probably for life.
Technically speaking, Rogers doesn’t offer a 6GB plan any more either, at least under their standard plans. Where on the website is the 6GB plan of which you speak?
the 6GB plan was offered from launch of the 3gs up untill mid september
it appears to be a plan that they offer whenever an iphone gets launched
being said im still weary that rogers/fido is going to slap a tethering fee in the new year unless theres news i didnt hear about…
“What will happen on December 31, 2009 when the promotion expires?
Fido will continue to enable tethering on devices that allow it, but Data add-ons will be adjusted to better reflect the way customers are using tethering services.”
ughhhh cant wait
Just read this…
http://themobileninjas.com/2009/11/04/thinking-of-bringing-your-own-hardware-to-bell-get-a-cut/
Bring your own hardware from a competitor, and you get a discount on your plan…
The discounts are broken down as being 5% for a 12mth contract, 10% for a 24mth contract, and a 20% off a 36mth contract.
just checked out the iphone plans and “chatted” with a bell customer service rep
no unlimmited texting?
non starter right there
what is the tethering fee with bell i cant find ANY info on it
When I asked in-store a couple of weeks ago, it was $100/mo in addition to your data plan to enable tethering on a smartphone.
I punched her.
There seems to be a few things missing in that first sentence, like an in-store what, and how much data do you get for $100/m, or is it $100/m for the privilege of tethering at all. 🙂
Seriously though, the tethering rates (as of a few days before the launch of the HSPA network) were between $25 and $65 for between 500MB and 3GB of data for smart phones. Don’t know about the iPhone, and I don’t know about any changes since HSPA launched.
A little tip though, speaking to an in-store clerk BEFORE the launch of a product is rarely gonna get you a straight answer, unless they actually do their own homework on HoFo. 🙂
Yeah, Bell’s plan’s kind of weird, but it’s not that bad. I never count special promos when comparing plans, because it can turn into a ‘well I negotiated THIS price’ conversations.
Their ‘standard’ $55 isn’t that bad, depending on your needs though. More minutes and same data as Rogers, and that includes unlimited txt and calling between you and 5 LOCAL phone numbers, which for many people is going to be just fine.
For some reason, they think throwing in free conference calling is going to be appealing to iPhone users, while oddly NOT including Visual Voicemail, but you can add that as part of the iPhone “Fun 20” pack, for an additional $20/m. The Fun 20 adds an additional 750 txt.
Over all, it’s not that impressive, but outside of the VV, depending on your TXT and calling habits COULD make more sense than Rogers equivalent $65 plan.
Oddly, Bell’s similar $60 plans for Windows Mobile and Palm do include the option of unlimited TXT.
Looking at the Telus $65 plan, you get 250 minutes, either unlimited TXT or unlimited NATIONWIDE calling/TXT with your fave 5. I couldn’t tell what the Telus deal with VVMail is though.
Overall, I have to say that I’m not compelled by any of the big three plans. I’m gonna stick with my current plan which gives me all that junk, plus unlimited data $45/m. There aren’t any phones currently upgrading to (though the Omnia II looks interesting, it’s not QUITE there). I’m holding out for something that has either Snapdragon or Tegra. I’d like to see one of the Canadian carriers get the HTC HD2 (or possibly the Moto Droid) in the new year.
That would make for something interesting. I’d lean towards the HD2 because I don’t NEED the keyboard, and it’ll be hacked to run Android as an experiment, no doubt about it.
Rumour has it that Telus will be getting the Moto Droid in Q1 of 2010…
http://themobileninjas.com/2009/11/05/telus-to-launch-the-motorola-droidsholes/
Hmm… maybe the HD2 will land on one of the carriers around the same time… 🙂