Deutsche Telekom bringing T-Mobile to Canada in 2009?
This actually might be going down, according to tipster of ours. At this point, we have yet to confirm the information, so we’re going to leave it as a rumor for the time being. In any case, here is what we have been told:
- Deutsche Telekom has been pre-approved for a financing and protocol agreement which will allow them to introduce T-Mobile to the Canadian market (subject to restrictions in all provinces except Ontario during a 6, 12 and 18 month trial period that expires in 2010), and also pre-approves them for testing roaming, cell tower reception and international data agreements.
- The person heading up the Canadian division of Deutsche Telekom will be Canadian, in compliance with the Canadian Business Ethics law
- Deutsche Telekom already owns the name T-Mobile in Canada under a US Parent Office international exchange program.
- They plan to launch T-Mobile in Canada in 2009.
- Currently, as we all know, Rogers is the only GSM game in town. With T-Mobile’s entrance into the Canadian market, data rates are going to plummet quickly. DT also plans to introduce an unlimited BlackBerry plan to the Canadaian market to be priced at $75/month. Basically telling Rogers to go screw themselves.
- T-Mobz Canada is set to offer many of the devices we’re used to seeing here in the U.S. like the Sidekick line and T-Mobile’s HTC products. I guess that’s bye bye Fido Sidekicks?
So, yeah. A whole bunch of info, completely unconfirmed, so again, take this as you will. We’ll dig a little deeper and find out what we can, and as always, keep y’all updated. Anyone in Canada need to change their pants after reading this (assuming it happens)?
Will DTAG buy some existing carrier? Will they buy some AWS spectrum? Or they’ll be a MVNO of Ted Rogers?
Oh, and please someone corrects the headline. It’s “Deutsche”, not “Duetsche”.
@The Boy Genius
since u have this deutsche telecom insider
u shud work on finding out if the rumors about buying sprint are true
i love this site!
go bg!
OH GOD LET THIS BE TRUE ! Since 2004 when Robbers bought Fido, it all went down to hell for us Canadians. Fido plans have been killed and their current ones are on par with what Robbers offers. Basically, there is a monopoly on GSM service and Mr. Ted is making us all bend over
HALP!
Adi
Any competition is always welcomed!
I have a feeling they will be an MVNO like Virgin, so their hands will be tied… although Virgin Canada has some good deals, if only they were GSM.
D
if this happens they won’t be a MVNO. the crtc and industry canada are doing a spectrum auction.
i for one would gladly like to see tmob enter the canadian market as they are the only ones i think with enough backing and experience to make for a real player. manitoba telecom and quebec’s videotron are also looking at it, but i don’t think they’re strong enough to fight the rogers juggernaut alone.
This would be great.. I wonder how this T-Mobile deal would effect the current lawsuit with Telus regarding the “My Faves” trademarks infringement…
It’s about time we see data rates drop. Rogers has the monopoly with regards to GSM phones and we are lacking stiff competition. T-mobile is welcome and the sooner the better!
AHHHHHH!
I have been waiting for this to happen for years…
The homie Boy Genius, please keep us Canadians posted.
dt taking on robers would be a snap as for virging in canada they probably much airspace from telus like th do in the us from sprint
MNVO’s typicly aligne themselves with bigger CDMA carriers like sprint
This is awesome news! I am really looking forward to seeing T-Mobile cross the border.
I would take a Sidekick LX no matter what the Rogers cancelation fee is.
Come on T-Mobile! Get Over Here Now!
Oh shit I just crapped my pants finally in one year ill be able to have my sk lx omg omg omg I’m having a panic attack
There’s a lot of speculation and wishful thinking here by BGR and Canadian readers.
A couple of notes here. I would imagine that T-Mobile, if indeed interested in entering the auction is probably more concerned about their partnership with a Canadian company, in order to satisfy foreign ownership laws. Therefore, any ideas of an “unlimited Blackberry plan” seems bogus given that T-Mobile is probably only now trying to figure out how much a winning bid as well as a network rollout will cost.
Secondly, while it may be logical for T-Mobile to bring out the same phones for Canada and the US, any speculation over specific hardware is far too premature. While T-Mobile would have roaming agreements with Rogers, lets not forget that the spectrum auction is for 700MHz. This means that entirely new hardware will be coming out to accomodate that band.
I know that us Canadians are excited about the prospect of a new, benevolent player, but lets get a grip. I doubt contracts, rate plans and phones are in the plans right now.
wow, nice scoop BGR. It’s good seeing real news that you guys worked hard to find out about around here. This is my favorite site, keep it up guys.
Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how the prices work out, I’m American (and I work for AT&T, lol) but if another Republican gets elected I think I’ll move to Canadia (intended) and make some money with T-Mobile !!!
The news articles also say that, besides creating their own infrastructure, their 3G will be their US-only 1700MHz spectrum, which will allow them to sell the same hardware (handsets) in both the US and Canada.
@ Joshua M:
” Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how the prices work out, I’m American (and I work for AT&T, lol) but if another Republican gets elected I think I’ll move to Canadia (intended) and make some money with T-Mobile !!!” i feel for you.. and agree with your position on this..
another 4-8 years of republican politics will put teh US back into the stone age…
I can’t wait to have some competition. Ted Robber’s pockets are gonna get a lot lighter.
@ MArk..
his pockets are too heavy to lose weight so suddenly LOL
I hope this happens!
However I doubt it will considering the big three basically tell the CRTC how wireless services should be (the CRTC knows jack sh*t IMHO, but they be the law), and I’m sure those CRTC pockets are properly lined by the same clusterf*cks that think having another carrier come in to rock the boat (give options to consumers) is evil… those dirty douches…..
About time! I’ll be glad to see Rogers lose some money and their monopoly on GSM service in Canada.
I’ll be praying everyday for this to happen. I am so sick and tired of Rogers and Bell Canada. They literally take advantage of their customers and have no worries about competition so they keep raising rates. I’ll definitely be checking back in on this and would move my business elsewhere if it’s good.
I want to print this article out and frame it.
The spectrum was opened up recently by the Canadian gov’t with special aim being taken against the big 3: Rogers, Telus, Bell, who are not allowed to bid on this. MTS (Manitoba Tel) has hitched its cart to two other financial backers in an effort to become the 4th biggie. They have tried going National in the past with their Allstream acquisition which didn’t work out as well as hoped for.
Given that Rogers/Fido is the only GSM game in the country and given that Canada has some pretty tough rules on foreign ownership/investment in telecoms, T-Mobile would be forced to work with one of the other carriers and they’re all CDMA based.
T-Mobile USED to have a stake in what was Microcell but that was sold to Rogers some time ago.
I am having trouble seeing T-Mobile work with a Cable company (Shaw, Videotron, not Rogers for obvious reasons) as their business plans do not overlap that well.
Rogers phones me every couple of weeks with another really stupid offer to hook me into a 3 year contract – perhaps their sudden “interest” in me as a customer is a result of their impending, really needed, and well deserved butt kicking?
One can only hope.
Wow, this is excellent news, i ahve been waiting forever for this to happen. Bye Bye fido hiptop2, hello t-mobile.
@TTune…
I thought the big 3 in Canada COULD bid on the auction as long as they had a foreign investor to take basically a bigger stake in it..
ie AT&T and Rogers teamed up to jointly purchase the spectrum (which we all know AT&T has had looong affiliations with Rogers..It wasn”t called Rogers/AT&T for nothing)…aside from that fact AT&T has been buying up Canadian blocks of numbers for years now..