Bell will unlock clients HSPA phones after 30 days
As if there weren’t already enough reasons to get excited for the arrival of Bell’s HSPA network and the amazing handsets that it will bring with it, one of our Bell connects stepped up to the mound and delivered us this slider of a tip. It seems that Bell is really serious about having its customers love them, because it is going to issue unlock codes for its branded devices. Of course caveats apply, but they’re not all that out of the ordinary: your account must be active for at least one month, only phones purchased from Bell need apply, you won’t be able to ditch your contract, and you will be charged a fee. We’re not exactly clear on what the feel will be, but we’ve heard it might be as high as $250 dollars per handset. Obviously the cost of the official unlock doesn’t even begin to compete with third-party unlockers, but at least it will keep your warranty in tact. And no, we’re awfully sorry, but we’re not 100% sure Bell will unlock your iPhone. Hit the jump for a larger pic.
P.S. Yes, we did notice that it looks like Bell will be carrying an HSPA-flavored Omnia II.
Any news on their plans? Do you expect them to be more competitive price wise from the start? Or just the same CDMA plans?
Bell is a cie that doesn’t care about their customer. I’m wondering where they will make a profit out of this!
They will make profit out the people who switch away from Rogers!
Tried BELL SIM CARD today on an Unlocked GSM Apple iPhone. Didn’t work. TOO BAD! looks like Bell will loose tons of revenue when the Olympics come with all those international phones out there. I’m going to check out TELUS before I switch over to FIDO
there is a fee associated with unlocking so i guess thats how they’ll make a profit from it
Im sure the fee is close to the ETF.
If I was charged a fee similar to my ETF, Id cancel anyway, and go monthly.
Greedy Bastards.
first of all get a unlocked phone. you’ll save so much.
the price is 250$
Man, if they charge such a high fee of $250 for just unlocking, i would rather buy an unlocked phone directly from the manuf. without any contract obligation or i would just unlock it anywhere else. I can think of max $5 for unlocking, anything more, i would pass it.
So when is Rogers going to have a press release about this as well?
I’m lining up my talking points to Rogers about how Bell is better in a million different ways for them to give me a better deal when I get my Bold 9700 on the morning of the 26th. (Any tips, you guys?)
No, Bell will not unlock your iPhone for you.
http://themobileninjas.com/bell-will-unlock-their-hspa-devices
Already knew this was coming, but heard pricing was around $50 per phone
Hey, throw down some of your talking points…
I switched from Telus to Rogers to Fido because of the service.
Telus (as CDMA) had shite service in the suburbs of Vancouver…Fido, though part of Rogers, gives me my unlimited text, 250 minutes, free evenings and weekends and 6gb of data for $89 after taxes with no system access fee. I’m quite happy with that! Occasional dropped call with Fido, but way the hell better than Telus…what will Bell have to compete? I thought they share a network with Telus, so they split infrastructure costs across the country. Telus owns the hardware in the west, Bell in the east.
Rogers will unlock for $28.00 to use other sims while traveling.
Since when will Rogers unlock a phone for $28?? That must be new..
Now, I wonder if Bell will also unlock their hybrid GSM phone (mostly just the Tour) now!
Has anyone heard anything about the continued rollout plans for Bell’s HSPA network? I live in an area that only gets 1X and currently isn’t on the HSPA map…
@Dave
Where abouts do you live where you only get 1x? I’m on both Telus (personal) and Rogers (work) and I’ve always carried the exact same phone for each starting with Razr V3/V3C, V9/V9M, BB pearl 8100/8130 and now my Storm which uses both CDMA and GSM with the flick of a switch
All I can say is that all the devices that I’ve used for both CDMA and GSM are know for the best RF. When you were with Telus, you were probably using a shit RF phone. Being with both Telus and Rogers all I can say Rogers is the one with the shittiest coverage between the two as I travel extensively across urban and rural places through BC and Alberta. I’m using Telus way more because I get pretty much coverage wherever I go. They Rogers ad “Canada’s Most Reliable Network” is utterly complete bullshit!
@Dmac — Yep, I’m in the same boat and carry both as well just like you. Telus/Rogers Razr, Razr2’s but instead of Pearl I carried Curves. I guess your reasoning is the same as mine. One for personal TELUS and work ROGERS/FIDO. I also carried the same models because accessories such as car charger, wall charger etc…
I’m gonna have to agree with you that Rogers is crap compared the Telus Coverage in both the city and outskirts anywhere in BC and Alberta.
So true, ROGERS THE MOST RELIABLE NETWORK! Fucking Bullshit! My 3G signal is crap, keeps dropping to EDGE and massive upon massive dropped calls!
Rogers is the bullshit network.
@Dave From Canada: Well as a student, I’ve compared all three carriers’ Student BB plans — Telus sucks as they don’t offer data (WTF? Kids will actually get suckered into getting a BB for FB and MySpace?!), and Bell is cheaper than Rogers ($50 vs $55) while offering unlimited data vs 500mb!
But I’d prefer Rogers to Bell because everyone I know in Toronto hates Bell, and also cuz my current contract is barely halfway through so I know they’ll rip my wallet apart if I try to leave Rogers. I have absolutely no experience negotiating ending contracts early.
@DMac: When you’re in Toronto! I’m in the heart of Canada (Toronto, hehe
) so reception is great 24/7, and when I travel it’s normally to Ottawa, MTL, or Van (favourite city ever).
ok if they have changed 911 fees or system access fee or any other charges you may get being with them without telling you/ your permission they have to cancell your contract
Gotta love it… the phone comes unlocked to Bell.. they lock it… and charge you to unlock it!
Either way, I can’t wait for this network.
Well $250 sounds crazy. They should just not offer the service. Anyone who knows anything about SIM based phones knows they can goto China town and get it done for $20.
Ok so bell will release there new phone starting in November 09….I have a copy of all of the phones they are to release.
3g I Phone
Samsung Omnia II 579.95
Samsung Intensity 279.95
Samsung Glyde 289.95
Nokia 6085 119.95
Nokia E71 579.95
That is so far, they have plans to release more and yes the plans will be cheaper. BTW people if you were a rogers person, you will defanetly change teams and switch to bell.
question:
so if you have a plan with bell already and you want to upgrade to the iphone, can you buy an unlocked iphone elswhere and just have the account switched to a sim card ?
I was told at bell that you could buy a rogers BB for example, unlock it and be able to use it with bell. Does anyone know if the guy I talked to was just being an idiot?
That certainly would be a new policy. From what I learned looking into it a couple months ago, Rogers and other carriers will let you activate an unlocked phone (doesn’t matter where you got it), but Bell only lets you activate a phone that has a Bell logo on it.
Although with this this HSPA network, maybe they’re changing the rules.
I can tell you bell is pretty firm with there guidelines and I dont think they would do something like that because they are not doing it with the i phone
I don’t know why you guys don’t just call and ask.
They’re there to try and help… they can answer questions like, you want to switch your current bell phone to a non-bell phone and use the new gsm capabilities…
They can also tell you, that (at least in Ontario), it’s $75.00 one time fee to unlock a new hspa phone that is purchased through bell. As long as you’ve had the service/phone for 30 days. The rest of your contract terms would apply.
Why all the speculation?
“…everyone i know in toronto hates bell…” – you need to expand your social circle to include those who don’t come from overseas where CDMA model was too expensive to invest in after-the-fact.