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Competition is Creeping up on Rogers

May 17, 2009 12:53 am By 6 Comments

Today I was reading that Telus is planning on a soft roll out of its GSM network in BC this year! Their plan is to be able to go live in February in time for the Winter Olympics.

I must say, I am plesently surprised by this news. Rogers has had a wonderful romp as the only GSM provider in Canada. They’ve flaunted and taken advantage of the fact. It is going to be fantastic to have some real choice.

Since Bell and Telus are joined at the hip these days (merge already!) Bell will probably be going live with GSM at around the same time. Perhaps they will soft roll out to the Toronto area. If so, I know someone that can test it out (pick me, pick me!)

Of course, the more public this GSM rollout becomes the more urgent is the need go live quickly. Delays will cause customer hesitation as they won’t want to buy CDMA phones. Plus, Rogers will miraculously become everyone’s friend by offering continually better incentives designed to lock subscribers in for 3 more long years.

Take our advice, wait for the GSM competition to heat up and then take advantage of the inevitable deals.

No matter how you look at it, all this new GSM goodness will be very refreshing. With how quickly Telus seems to be moving we aren’t going to have to wait too much longer.

About Darren Humphries

Darren Humphries has written 78 posts on Mobile Jaw..

Editor, MobileJaw.com Microsoft MVP (Windows Mobile)

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  • http://twitter.com/mobilejaw/status/1823842869 MobileJaw

    Competition is Creeping up on Rogers: Today I was reading that Telus is planning on a soft roll out of its GSM n.. http://bit.ly/yPEzd

  • MobileJaw

    Competition is Creeping up on Rogers: Today I was reading that Telus is planning on a soft roll out of its GSM n.. http://bit.ly/yPEzd

  • http://twitter.com/maceyr/status/1823873118 May C

    RT @MobileJaw Competition is Creeping up on Rogers: Today I was reading that Telus is planning on a soft roll out of its http://bit.ly/yPEzd

  • http://www.MobileJaw.com Mike Temporale

    What timing on your post. I was in a Bell authorized reseller store earlier this week. The sales assistant that I was working with was showing another guy some of the new screens in the account setup pages. One of the new options that just appeared is ‘Network Type’. Currently the only option is CDMA, but I think its pretty clear what we can expect to see in this field.

    So, being the nosey type, I interuped with a comment about how that switch was rumored for last year and that never happened. I was told that it is happening now and they are targeting Oct 1st as the go live point. He also let me know that Bell is rolling out 3G everywhere. There won’t be any slower networks outside of urban areas. Its 3G from one end of the country to the other. He also let me know that Bell and Telus are doing this together. So expect to see them launch at the same time.

    Aside from Bell and Telus, we still have the other companies that purchased wireless network from the government last year. Those guys should be almost ready to launch their service to the Canadian public. So there is a lot of choice in mobile providers coming to Canada.. Right now, iwe’re in a hurry up and wait position. Try not to sign anything that locks you to a carrier. Keep your options open so you can take advantage of the deals that become available when all these changes happen. :)

    (please forgive any typos, I’m typing this from my phone)

  • http://www.twitter.com/DarrenHumphries Darren Humphries

    We don’t exactly have a “Big Three” in cellular anymore, do we. Oh well, any competition is good.

    As for the new carriers, I don’t think people should jump on board too quickly. Globalive is going to be GSM but will piggyback on one of the other carriers for a while. They will, no doubt, have growing pains and it may be best to wait it out a bit. The other new carrier (can’t remember the name) is going to be some non-standard frequency, so your phone will only work locally.

    Soooooo looking forward to these changes!

  • http://twitter.com/darrenhumphries/status/1825465698 Darren Humphries

    Posted at MobileJaw: “Competition is Creeping up on Rogers” http://bit.ly/wyubz