GillTy

big changes coming to the canadian wireless industry

Canadians have reason rejoice, the mobile industry is set to be shaken up. With Rogers (and its subsidary Fido) dominating the GSM side of cell phones in this country, we have had absolutely no choice in carriers when using unlocked phones. The monopoly Rogers has on the market was put to light a year back with all the controversy surrounding Rogers’s outrageous data rates, and the iPhone 3G launch here. I am a Rogers customer after all I have no choice when using a unlocked imported first gen iPhone, unfortunately for me my $500 first gen iphone does not support 3G networks so I will still be stuck with Rogers. Fortunately for everyone else with a standard 3G North American UTMS phone there will be 5 legitimate 3G simcard supporting carriers be the end of next year in Canada.

The two major carriers besides Rogers, Telus and Bell have partnered to build new cell towers across the country and will be switching from CDMA to 3G UTMS aka GSM, in the frequencies of UTMS 850/1900. Which happen to be the same frequencies that most unlocked North American phones, along with Rogers and AT&T support. Both Bell and Telus already have much better data plans and rates on their existing CDMA/EVDO service, and will be launching their new service this Holiday along with the iPhone 3GS. Bell promises 96% coverage of the Canadian population, a much improved figure comparing to Rogers which is sub 70%. As well as these two giants entering Rogers market, there are two new Carriers launching 3G UTMS service.

The first is WIND mobile a carrier promising lower pricing than the 3 mobile giants in Canada, WIND is currently under going CRTC review and is building new towers and hopes to launch this holiday in the major markets including Vancouver. The second new carrier is DAVE wireless (temporary name), this carrier is currently setting up its equipment on Bell towers, and expect the company to launch limited service as east as Quebec by next summer. Unfortunately these two new Carriers are licensing the AWS bands, from the CRTC which means like T-Mobile in the US most phones including the iPhone 3GS will not support these Carriers. However the more competition the better, and hopefully this means a dramatic pricing cuts for Canadians well at least I hope for parity in pricing to US carriers. Rogers must be scared, and I cannot wait to see what happens.