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)?
“guess that’s bye bye Fido Sidekicks?”
Actually, Fido doesn’t offer the HipTop anymore anyways. They provide support for existing clients only, but no new HipTops are available.
its about time! Sidekicks finally in Canada!! I can’t wait for some more competition.
att woul not be much of an imporvment up ther rges the canadian equivalant of att
A lot of misinformation here.
1) spectrum up for grabs is 1700Mhz band and 2100 Mhz bands mainly (aligns with AWS spectrum the US auctioned in 2006 – NOT the 700Mhz of re-patriated cable spectrum just auctioned).
2) Two different spectrum buckets:
1 – 40Mhz for new entrants to bid on only
2 – 55Mhz for anyone to bid on
3) “Foreigner” rules: need to be a Canadian corporation. Foreign equity ownership must be less than 47%.
Consider my pants changed. This would be incredible news.
Also, FC1 is probably right, it will be some time yet (assuming this is true) that we actually see any concrete plans and hardware.
Looks like I’ll have to renew with Robbers again, although 2 years sounds about right. Won’t hesitate to pay to get the hell out of there if T-Mobile comes early though.
Yeh, but a lot of people are still using hiptop2, since you can’t really beat the data plan/device.
About time. Rogers/Fido are a complete joke. The monopoly and pricing and plan options is sickening when compared to US and international markets.
Who knows, maybe with the entry of T-Mobile, Canada will finally be able to have a legitimate iPhone carrier with a real plan!
Either way, 2009 is a loooong ways off to continue on with our current providers…
I really think it’s funny how you all have it out for Ted Rogers and call him the Robber. Truth is that the other Network owners like Bell, Telus and the smaller provincial ones are the robbers. Ted is working with GSM (a global network that 80% of the world is on) and that network is largely built on population base and in the case of Canada there is far too much open land with no population yet it is travelled so this requires towers in zero populated areas to keep connected. It costs a fortune. GSM sits on it’s own and is not backed by an analog system like CDMA and the TDMA network are. Therefore seeing that Bell, Telus and the smaller Provincial run markets are close to Rogers’ price, they are the Robbers. Rogers is making a network that is useable to you Worldwide and the others can’t even compete yet their prices are close to Rogers. Me.. well I’d never buy a Kia if its close to the price of a BMW. If it is, then the Kia’s overpriced not the BMW. Your option is to buy the Kia if the BMW is too expensive for you. Remember, if it was that cheap to build and operate a GSM network, don’t you think that Telus and Bell would have done it? Nothing stopping them from doing so other than money. It only looks like Rogers has the GSM monopoly because the others haven’t built and aren’t building a GSM network.(Their Choice). It’s easy to cry foul against a competitor who spent the money to get where it is when you are one of the ones that didn’t keep up with the times when the choice was yours all along.
I will cancel my rogers line right a way.
cant wait to see some serious competitors.
Who is Rogers/Fido kidding with pricing the Motorola Q9 at $525 (no contract) and $275 (with 3 years contract) and also the Samsung BlackJack at $425 (no contract) $225 (with 3 years contract)? I can get the same phone from eBay, UNLOCKED with extra stuff and free accessories (eg. Car Charger, SD Memory and etc..) for ONLY $299 for the Motorola Q9 and $199 for the Samsung BlackJack plus shipping cost. For $525 I can go buy myself an Unlocked Apple iPhone or an HTC TYTN II with Standalone GPS, 3G and WiFi. I can’t wait for T-Mobile, AT&T, Orange and other American and European GSM providers to come to Canada and kick Rogers out of business. Check out the contract pricing for UK customers at http://www.orange.co.uk they are offering FREE HTC Touch and HTC Touch Dual or BlackBerry 8320. What do you get from Fido for FREE if you sign a 3 YEARS contract?….. emmm.. let me check http://www.fido.ca .. NOTHING! Absolutely nothing for FREE even with a 3 years contract. Well, if you pay $10 then you may get a Nokia 6070 which is probably worth NOTHING! Basically Rogers/Fido is not discounting their phone to keep their customers on a long term contract. Why? Well because you have NO OTHER OPTIONS. I would have done the same if I were Ted Rogers, knowing that there is no compatition in my GSM World Business in the country. So let’s charge people whatever we like! In fact lets milk them as much as we can!!! What are you going to do? I will buy you… just like I bought Fido! or the SkyDome. I will buy CN Tower and change the name to Rogers Tower or may be Niagara Falls and call it Rogers Falls, Why not buy the country and call it Rogers Land or something. Lets change the flag and put Rogers Logo in the middle. So selfish that didn’t wanted to come up with a creative name for the company… I mean Orange, Fido, etc… they are sound cool. but I WANT MY NAME… EVERYTHING IS MINE. WOOAHA HA HA… Unlimited plan??? Hell NO. Why would we give people UNLIMITED something when they are paying hundreds a months for their current bill and they have no other options! Hey T-Mobile, Orange, AT&T and other GSM companies out there… Canada is waiting for you. Millions of people are waiting for you to have their business. We are all ready to take our business from Rogers to go elsewhere. Show us WHERE?
I agree, Rogers pricing is insane. When comparing it with other companies like Telus or even Bell you can tell that Rogers is rubbing us all with their pricing. If they want to lock us with a 3 years contract, the least they can do is to give their customers a decent phone for free…
I personally don’t like the name “Rogers” anyway. I think Canadians are so ignorant that they didn’t do anything about Skydome and let Rogers change te name to Rogers Centre!!! WTF! Some selfish people with money buy a piece of Canadian History and Change the name to whatever they want… where are we going with this anyway. The world is going to stupidity or something? Just like the new music, stupid movies and fashion. Where are those Humphrey Bogarts, Pink Floyds,….
We are now a bunch of people working to pay bills and making some Rogers rich every second. 1st world country? Are you kidding me??? this is more like slavery. People don’t think anymore. I remember that back in Germany when phone companies increased their price for SMS by 2%, people stopped sending SMS messages and instead emailed. Two months later they were forced to reduce the price because they lost customers. That’s smart thinking. That’s union. What are we here in North America? Specially in Canada? Don’t like Rogers? COMPLAIN! DO NOT USE THEIR SERVICE.
Don’t you really care about Skydome really? I do. Everytime I go there I am like WHY WHY WHY, someone would change a unique name of Skydone to something selfish and stupid as Rogers!
GK, I really think it’s funny reading comments from people who know absolutely NOTHING about the subject they’re speaking to. There are roughly 730 Million people in Europe. Approximately 525 Million in North America. We’re not counting Asia for the moment (which is also largely CDMA), so unless my math is WAY off (not likely), where do you get the 80% figure from? I’m gonna post a piece of an article from Mr. John Cox (Network World) which may be an eye-opener for you Rogers folks.
“The real problem with the cellular industry is all the blasted acronyms. Basically, you’ve got different ways of making a cellular voice or data call, with vendors lined up behind both. AT&T, and its Cingular acquisition, and T-Mobile are the major GSM carriers in the United States; with Sprint (which merged with Nextel), Verizon and Virgin Mobile as the chief CDMA carriers. Into the new millennium, their chief competitive tactic has been cutting prices.
But that’s changing. Both groups are speeding up their deployment of much faster 3G versions of their cellular radios. For CDMA, that’s various “revisions” of EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized), currently Revision A; for GSM, it’s UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone Standard) coupled with HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access).
The peak speeds claimed by the carriers show considerable overlap. The point is they’re way faster, and people want faster. ”
Currently, in Canada at least, The network services that Bell & Telus offer kick serious A$$ on ANYTHING Rogers has on the market.
At least part of what you said is partially correct. It is brutally expensive to setup and maintain a network in Canada. Why? Because only a relatively small portion of the North American population lives here. The pie
is already split 3 ways. How willing do you think a multi-national is going to be to invest in an already saturated market. IF T-Mobile comes to Canada, my guess it’s to ask Ted to retire and let the big boys handle it from here.
omg this can’t happen soon enough! just yesterday i found out that there was no way to get a hiptop in canada with the unlimited text feature b/c satan himself *cough* i mean Rogers, bought out Fido and cancelled the hiptop b/c “it competes with the blackberry”. frankly the blackberry is a business item, i’ve had one at work and sure its good there and i’m glad its canadain but the hiptop is way better for us of a younger generation. So fuck Rogers! T-mobile better get here soon and provide some GSM competition and bring their sidekick lineup toboot!
OH MY GOD!
I LOVE LIFE!!!!!
we’ve needed halp like this for a loooong time.
I hope this is truee…
omgomgomg.. I want a sidekick soooooo badddddddddddd.
FUCK YOU ROGERS.
oh lordy.
i hope this happens so bad! finally, SIDEKICKS IN CANADA!!!
I WANT A FUCKING SIDEKICK ALREADY.
Fuck you Rogers for changing the Skydome into the Rogers Centre.
I really want a sidekick and i would actually cancel my existing contract and pay the 400 dollar fee just to go to t mobile
^ Me too. I just really want a sidekick LEGALLY.
any news? really want t-mobile enter Canada market
Please tell me it is still hope for the future, if not for me for my son, c’mon T-moBile,Orange,Vodaphone etc think ahead millions of GSM customers await you here with high hopes . Any news on T-Mobile coming here ?
Right now it’s about $35 after taxes and surcharges for the cheapest Bell plan. How much bandwidth? 4 MB. That’s a whole 4096kb, or $6/mb
Oh i hope this is true. Even with the rumors of telus moving to 3G it will be nice to have a little competition to bring the rates down. especially since they charge for incoming txt. close to $1200.00 per Mb of txt.!!
Tmobile could blow the doors off of all Canadian carriers without unlimited plans by: (a) removing the regional restrictions from their basic plans; and, (b) offering cheap extensions of the plans to cover the US and vice versa (offering inexpensive Canadian extensions to their US market).