CDMA carriers Bell and Telus to launch iPhone in Canada

By Hercules K, BUSINESS 2.0 PRESS
Published: October 6 2009, 11:50 am EST

Bell and Telus will bring the iPhone to Canada in time for the holiday season on their new 4G GSM network with expected lower prices, ending the exclusivity agreement with Rogers

iphone compass CDMA carriers Bell and Telus to launch iPhone in CanadaBell Canada and Telus Wireless have confirmed (Bell press release, Telus press release) both companies would sell the iPhone in Canada starting in November, in time for the holiday season, ending the iPhone exclusivity agreement with Rogers.

The companies in a joint effort were able to upgrade their wireless infrastructure to 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) in order to support the GSM standard and hence the iPhone.

They will offer both the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS.

No pricing or exact availability was announced today. The new competition should help bring the price of the phone down. Prior to this news, the iPhone was offered by Rogers and Fido (owned by Rogers), so there was really no competition.

In the United States, AT&T’s own exclusive iPhone agreement is set to expire by the end of 2010, which will highly unlikely be extended, paving the way for another carrier to also offer the handset.

Verizon (CDMA-based) does not have the infrastructure capability to support the iPhone, and it is unlikely the company will be finished upgrading to 4G by the end of 2010.

The 4G upgrade process is a lot more difficult to complete in the United States comparative to Canada, simply given the fact of the sheer population of 300 million people in the U.S., compared to about 34 million in Canada. Additionally, despite Canada being larger than the U.S., Canada’s population is heavily distributed in the southern part of the country, making it easy for telecoms to make network upgrades.

In Canada, Rogers still has a complete monopoly over the country’s entire GSM network infrastructure.

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Questions about this post? Please contact Hercules K at hercules@business2press.com

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  • Rodney
    god bless rogers - they love their clients so much that to use the iphone, there's a 3 year contract - unlike AT&T or anyone else in the world ;)
    must be because they're the only game in town in canada so they can screw us over a year longer than other carriers everywhere else - hopefully bell won't follow suit.
  • e
    if they have to chase you down every month to collect the bill, I think they will be okay with you leaving to belltus
  • Bartholomew
    Every cell phone company is a "bunch of robbers", and every single company has pros and cons.

    Besides the fact that you should learn proper grammatical skill before posting, you should also do some research on the phone companies as well, beezman.
  • beezman
    Rogers suck anyways as there a bunch of robbers that take your money when its bill paying time, then a week or two later they phone you up and ask you where there money is, and then aspect you to pay doubt for a crappy service.
  • Roger Belltus
    Why do all these "journalists" insist on calling it "the end of the iPhone exclusivity agreement with Rogers". Apple and Rogers may have had an agreement, but when the iPhone was launched, Rogers was the only GSM carrier in Canada; therefore the only choice. The deal would not have been like AT&T's deal with Apple.
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