Sucks to be anyone who just bought a new Citywest phone, especially if Bell switches to away from CDMA.
[quote]The two cellphone companies — Canada’s second- and third-largest providers, respectively, after Rogers Communications Inc. — are poised to announce a conversion from their current wireless technology and toward the more popular kind used by their rival, according to a report Monday from UBS Investment Research.
Both companies have cellphone networks that run on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology, which is used by fewer than 20 per cent of the providers in the world, while Rogers uses the near-ubiquitous Global System for Mobile communications (GSM).
Bell and Telus are looking to switch to either Wideband-CDMA (WCDMA) or High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology, both of which are similar to GSM in how they transmit data, UBS said. Over the past few years, Bell and Telus have seen Rogers run away with signing up new customers, who are attracted to flashy GSM phones — including the iPhone — that are not available to CDMA carriers.[/quote]
Did they not choose to implement CDMA? am I missing something? They should have gone GSM and got it up and running before Rogers. Maybe provided better plans for the IPhone as well…
The only way CityWest could have gone GSM would have been to partner with Rogers since they are the only ones in Canada using GSM. That’s pretty hard to do when Rogers has plans to move in to the area.
I do blame CityWest for being in complete denial about expanding their services though.
I was gonna ask where I could get the best deal on a pay as you go, I’m not looking for any Texting, Internet Browsing, etc, Privileges. Just The Main Phone deal so I’m sorry if I hijack the thread but I think it’s pretty much on topic?
Do a search and you’ll see lots of discussion on this. The cliff notes are though that the “speakeasy” branded phones are the best deal. 7-11 is a retailer of these phones although I don’t know if the local one ever brought them in. I bought one for my wife in PG. Basic phone plus $25 air time cost me just over $100. Air time refills at any 7-11.
7-11 Speakout is having the free phone promotion in August.
Buy $100 airtime (1 year expiry) and they’ll give you the cheap Nokia for free.
Citywest could have implemented its own GSM network – it’s actually cheaper than CDMA digital stuff, because you don’t have to pay license fees. A lot of smaller telcos do GSM because it’s cheaper. Isn’t there one setting up on the coast somewhere with GSM?
The nice thing is that if they move beyond CDMA and do the WCDMA stuff, then they will eventually merge with the new GSM stuff. That’s what’s happened in Japan, anyway.
PetroCanada also has a similar service. The only difference is the PetroCanada minutes expire after 180 days instead of 7-11’s 365 days. In either case, you can roll over your minutes if you just buy more.
I’ve been using Speakout since last year, and it’s pretty good. No frills, but voicemail, caller ID is included. No monthly fees, no contract. You pay for what you use, unlike the monthly contract thing.
I’m not sure if the Rupert 7-11 has them yet – the woman there said she ordered a bunch. But if you get one elsewhere, just dial 611 and ask for a Port Edward number and they’ll change it for you.
The phones use GSM as well (the point of this thread!) so you can swap the SIMs with other phones. I know someone who just inherited an iPhone and just put her Speakout SIM in it.
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so I’m sorry if I hijack the thread but I think it’s pretty much on topic?
