Canadians with a serious need for speed might want to pack their bags and move to one of Canada’s five largest cities — Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal — as today Rogers announced that its 21Mbps HSPA+ network upgrade has gone live and is ripe for the picking. Almost. No current Rogers handsets are capable of reaching such speeds, but if mobile internet is something you’re absolutely smitten with then you should definitely consider pre-ordering the new 21Mbps HSPA+ Mobile Internet Rocket Stick. It starts off at $79.99 on contract (which is $79.99 more than Rogers’ current Rocket Stick offerings), but c’mon; not owning the latest and greatest gear flies straight in the face of what we here at BGR are all about. As for the general benefits for current 3G handset owners, the upgrade also comes with an overhaul of the network’s backend, meaning more people should be able to simultaneously use data without making the network come to a screeching halt.

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A day we thought would never come is upon us as the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, whose members include all of the major Canadian telcos and their subsidiaries (including all new entrants other than DAVE Wireless), have agreed to a code of conduct that benefits not themselves but their customers. Just like in the US, Canadians will now be able to walk away from their contracts penalty free if a carrier makes material changes to the terms of the contract. If the customer doesn’t wish to leave their carrier, he or she will have the option of staying on board at a grandfathered rate. Other new rules state that charges and contracts must be more clearly explained, privacy must be more fiercely protected (remember a few years ago when hundreds of pages of Rogers subscribers’ personal information were found in a dumpster?) and customer service must, well, be of service. All in all the new rules sound amazing, but only time will tell whether or not they actually have an impact on the Canadian wireless market.

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We here at BGR know how difficult it’s been for Canadians to secure an iPhone 3GS due to low levels of inventory, so we thought we’d pass along some good news for those of you who are still waiting. The discount promotions for original Rogers/Fido iPhone 3G owners as well as the 6GB/$30 data plan has been extended. The details are exactly the same as they were the first time around except now the entire deal stays alive through September 15th. For those of you who are still waiting on your iPhone 3GS, it shouldn’t be much longer now. We’ve been told that stock levels are rising and everyone should be taken care of ASAP.

Do you see anyone you know standing in that line? Today is the day to pack up your toys, gadgets and snacks, and head out to Apple/AT&T/Rogers/Fido/Carphone Warehouse or wherever else if you didn’t order your iPhone online to be shipped. After all, it’s either lines today or a test of patience down the road. Be sure you are well prepared and are up to date on pricing and details on grabbing your iPhone; we wouldn’t want to see anyone turned away after spending an entire morning or afternoon (or both) braving the elements, wherever you are. After all the pics and updates we’ve given you, everything has finally culminated to this moment. Let us know what lines in your area are like — if there even are lines in your area — and how easy or difficult it was to leave the store with your shiny, new iPhone 3G S in hand!

Over the past few weeks we at BGR have been pestering the folks at Rogers and Fido for information on their iPhone 3G S pricing and policies. Well guess what — they’ve just given us the goods. Hit the jump, because we’re pretty damn sure that you’ll like what you see.

There has been a lot of excitement around the new iPhone 3G S and we wanted to recognize the early adopters who helped make the iPhone the hottest-selling handset in Canadian wireless history. We will be discounting the price of the iPhone 3G S by between $250 and $500 to provide savings to many of our iPhone customers.

What this means is that eligible iPhone owners can acquire the iPhone 16GB 3G S for as low as $199 or the 32GB for as low as $299 until July 31, 2009.

For Fido customers, we’re offering the Fido Rewards iPhone 3G S promotion. This enables iPhone customers to redeem FidoDollars towards a new iPhone 3G S with an additional $100 top-up from Fido.

For customers who don’t qualify for these extra savings, we are pleased to offer Rogers Wireless customers the iPhone at our cost on rogers.com. This cost – $580 for the iPhone 3G, $680 for the iPhone 3G S 16GB and $780 for the iPhone 3G S 32GB – represents the price we pay for the device plus a nominal fee for the SIM card. Customers can access these devices at retail locations for just $19 more for the three devices.

We’re also happy to announce that Rogers and Fido are extending the 6GB/$30 data promotion until July 31. This offer is valid for customers on a new or existing iPhone plan or customers buying an Android-powered HTC Magic or HTC Dream.

Five ways to save

1) For Rogers Wireless customers who bought an iPhone 3G between July 11 and Sept. 30, 2008, and with an average monthly spend of at least $100, Rogers will provide $500 off the cost of an iPhone 3G S. This special offer expires July 31, 2009 and comes with the addition of a one-year term to the customer’s existing service agreement.

·      16GB 3GS $199
·      32GB 3GS $299

2) For Rogers Wireless customers who bought an iPhone between July 11 and Dec. 31, 2008, but aren’t eligible for the above offer, Rogers will provide $250 dollars off the purchase of an iPhone 3G S. This special offer expires July 31, 2009 and comes with the addition of a one-year term to the customer’s existing service agreement.

·      16GB 3GS $449
·      32GB 3GS $549

3) All Rogers Wireless customers can upgrade to the iPhone 3GS at our cost at Rogers.com, or for a suggested retail price of just $19 more than our cost through our retail channels.

·      8GB 3G $580/$599
·      16GB 3GS $680/$699
·      32GB 3GS $780/$799

4) Fido customers can take advantage of the Fido Rewards iPhone 3G S promotion:
·      Use FidoDollars towards the purchase of a new iPhone 3G S
·      Fido will top up the FidoDollars amount by $100
·      This promotion does not include an extension or renewal of their service agreement.

5) New and existing iPhone customers can take advantage of a limited-time promotion of 6GB of data for $30, now extended until July 31. Other Rogers and Fido data plans will remain the same, including the only national standalone data plan at $25 per month for 500 MB. We know that this is the right plan for most Canadians – 93 per cent of current iPhone customers on a data plan use less than 500 MB of data per month.

Quite a few people were outraged by the $699 and $799 no-contract prices we listed for perspective iPhone 3G S buyers on Rogers and Fido, and understandably so. Some questioned whether or not pricing would be the same directly from Apple and Rogers/Fido however, and thanks to some fine-print on Apple.ca we have been able to confirm that the 16GB iPhone 3G S will go for $699 and the 32GB model will go for $799 — identical to Best Buy Mobile’s pricing:

For non-qualified customers, including existing Rogers or Fido customers who want to upgrade from another phone or replace an iPhone3G, the pricing without a new agreement is $599(8GB), $699(16GB), or $799(32GB).

Also of note is the fact that the nine Apple Stores in Canada will themselves be selling the entire iPhone line up, something they did not do with the iPhone 3G. Hit the jump for a screenshot of Apple’s terms.

UPDATE (rev 2): It looks like both Fido and Rogers will be doing their best to not sell the iPhone 3G S at no-contract pricing at launch. To be clear, Fido and Rogers’ official position is that the 3G S will be available off contract, but we’re hearing differently from our ninjas. At least preliminarily, they’d MUCH rather sell 3G S units tied to contracts.

When Apple announced the upcoming iPhone 3G S earlier this month, we posted a quick little synopsis of info available to would-be 3G S owners up in Canada. Our Canadian readers thanked us, and then promptly threatened violence lest we do everything in our power to dig up contract-free pricing on Apple’s new kit. Not wanting to anger the Canadian people we got to digging and thankfully, one of our ninjas just came through with some tasty screen shots from Best Buy. According to the major retailer’s inventory system, Rogers and Fido customers are looking at no-contract pricing of $799.99 for the 32GB version and $699.99 for the 16GB version. A bargain at twice the price… Umm, or something like that. Hit the jump for screenshots of the Rogers 16GB iPhone 3G S in Best Buy’s inventory (32GB is above) along with the 16GB and 32GB models from Fido.

Okay, listen up. There’s a ton of Canadian BGR readers out there so we’re going to spend a moment letting you know what the real story is with the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S in the Great White North. Both Rogers and Fido will be carrying the new iPhone 3G S and just like in the US, it will be available as of June 19th — same pricing, too — the 16GB model going for $199 and the 32GB model going for $299. On the same day, the price of the iPhone 3G 8GB will drop to $99. Furthermore, the 6GB/$30 iPhone data promo will be back in full force (albeit for an unspecified limited time). iPhone users can tether as well, provided their plan offers 1GB or more of data which is fair enough because if you’re still on the 500MB plan as of today, you’re pretty much a sucker (we kid, sort of). As for MMS, a new iPhone value pack has the feature covered and will be offered when OS 3.0 launches on June 17th. This brings us to perhaps the best news — if you already have an iPhone 3G from Rogers or Fido and are not eligible for an HUP to snag an iPhone 3G S, you will be able to purchase one with no-contract pricing.

Happy, Canada?

Okay, so one of our Fido ninjas hit us up with some exclusive snaps of what is reportedly the entire roadmap for the rest of 2009. We’re very far away from being able to confirm this information — it actually made us pop about 50 antacid tablets — but we’re going to do our jobs as best we can and report the goods. So here we go…

The most notable slide has to do with a 4GB iPhone 3G. While there is a huge disclaimer that the image isn’t the device itself, the slide depicts a 4GB iPhone model that will run for $99 and come with quad-band EDGE, tri-band HSDPA, a 2 megapixel shooter and, believe it or not, iChat video calling (oh hi, front-facing camera). You might recall all of that talk of a $99 iPhone at Walmart that we brought you a while ago — it looks like the timing was a bit off but it may actually happen. Moving on to the other handsets, we have the BlackBerry Curve 8320 for $50, Nokia E71 for $50 and Nokia E55 for $25, Sony Ericsson Z780i for $75 and a bunch of low-end goodness at great prices.

So, what do you think? Is this real, or is it like that total BS Rogers roadmap we saw at Christmas? Hit the jump for the rest of the slides and sound off in the comments.

Big news today for our friends up north who have been plagued with cold sweats and night tremors ever since November when SMS service was disabled in Canada. When the service was initially killed, Twitter cited billing issues as the reason. It may have taken a while to resolve those issues, but Rogers has just announced a partnership with Twitter that will revive SMS and allow users to both send and receive tweets via text. What’s more, the new deal applies to both Rogers and Fido customers. Canadians, rejoice! Shortcode 21212 has officially been revived and any and all texts exchange will be covered by your SMS plan. In other words, feature phone users no longer have to worry about how to tell all their friends about the string of minutia that combines to make up each day. Woo!

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To say that a new iPhone is not on its way is like saying Glenn Beck isn’t messed in the head, and the fact that Canada’s Fido is now offering “refreshed” iPhone 3G’s to clean house is yet another piece of supporting evidence. Refreshed? Yes, refreshed. Essentially, a refreshed iPhone 3G was purchased by someone who returned it before 15 days or 30 minutes of talk time — which differs from “refurbished”, e.g. a phone that got stepped on at a kegger and had a few parts replaced by Apple. The savings on a refreshed iPhone 3G are not much to fawn over at $50, making the 8GB $149.99 and the 16GB $249.99. Warranties on refreshed units are curtailed by six months as well, but it’s not like that’s going to stop a fickle consumer from getting his/her refresh on.

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Since the passing of founder and CEO Ted Rogers in early December, Rogers Communications, which owns both Rogers Wireless and Fido, the sole two GSM carriers in Canada, has been without a permanent leader until a couple days ago when the Board of Directors appointed 52-year old Nadir Mohamed as the CEO. Said Alan Horn, Chairman and interim CEO prior to the appoint of Mohamed:

Nadir was the unanimous choice of our Board of Directors to succeed Ted as RCI’s President and CEO. He is a highly regarded, principled telecom executive who has the demonstrated ability to build and lead strong teams and to consistently deliver strong results. Over the past eight years Nadir has earned the respect of our Board, our employees and the investment community. The Board believes Nadir’s skills, experience, track record and firm understanding of the industry uniquely position him to lead Rogers through the next chapter in its history. We all congratulate Nadir and look forward to working with him in his expanded leadership role.

So just what is Mohamed’s priority as he begins his time as CEO?

Looking forward, we will build upon this solid foundation by driving continuous improvements to our customer experience, by improving the efficiency of our operations through cost and capital management, and by delivering innovations and deploying leading edge technologies to meet the changing needs of our customers. With our strategy and asset base both firmly set, I look forward to working together with our Board, management and employees in leading Rogers through its next era and continuing to create significant value for our customers and shareholders.

Okay, it’s pretty much your average boilerplate statement, but seeing as Mohamed has a reputation of being quite the aggressive and cunning businessman, we actually believe that he will deliver on his word.

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We said it, you doubted, we said it again and now it’s finally here – Fido has launched the BlackBerry Pearl 8100. That’s right – it’s 2009 and a wireless carrier just launched the Pearl 8100. Okay, so the 8100 is pretty much obsolete at this point and the fact that Fido has the nerve to ask for $400 month-to-month or $25 over 3-years is nothing short of absolutely insane. Hey, nothing is stopping you from bringing in something hot like a Bold or Curve 8900 instead. God knows you’ve earned it for being so patient during the long, arduous wait! Anyway, just like we said the data plans are as follows:

• $15 – Unlimited personal email and IM
• $25 – 500MB
• $30 – 1GB
• $60 – 3GB

Happy now, Canada?

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We’ve just received word that Canada’s Fido Wireless has begun shipping out the first batch of Blackberry Pearl 8100 devices to its retail stores. A number of shops have already received their first packages, well ahead of the anticipated February 4th release date. The actual boxes are an oh-so-pretty baby blue color, similar to the current Bell Blackberry packaging. This is all well and good, but if you’ve been hankering for a Fido branded ‘Berry you’re still gonna have to wait. Their POS system still doesn’t contain any actual Blackberry plans, so reps won’t be able to activate the devices even if you find one friendly enough to give it a shot. Then again, the appeal of the 8100 died roughly 2 years ago, so we can’t imagine too many folks are chomping at the bit for this one. Either way, it’s good to see that the handsets are arriving, as it shows the carrier is taking steps to have more than a couple on hand when the actual launch day comes around. And you all know you’re going to BYOB (Bring Your Own Berry) anyway. Hit the jump for one more shot.

Thanks, Mike!

Good news for all of the Fido BlackBerry wannabes out there. As expected and just like we told you last week, Fido did indeed begin training its employees for the arrival of BlackBerry with a targeted launch date of February 4. Sadly it looks like Fido really is going to start things off with the Pearl 8100, but at least it’s going to allow people to BYOBB. Well, unofficially at least.

The 8100 will go for $400 month-to-month/off contract, $350 on a 2-year, and $25 on a 3-year with voice and data. As for the data plans to be offered, they are as follows:

• $15 – Unlimited personal email and IM
• $25 – 500MB
• $30 – 1GB
• $60 – 3GB

BES won’t be offered as Fido is now a low-cost carrier and its parent company Rogers would prefer you to get your BES on with them, but tethering is allowed at no additional cost. You know, unless you go over your data limit.

Thanks, SaxMan!

For a while we’ve been saying that Fido is going to start selling BlackBerry devices and services, and now it looks like the company is finally ready take the leap. Fido reps and CSRs have been told that BlackBerry is on its way and training will begin sometime next week. Good news, right? Maybe not at first. Quite a few Fido employees have told us that Fido is going make the Pearl 8100 its first available device. We’re hoping that this isn’t the case and Fido is full steam ahead with the 8220, but there just might be something to it. RIM declared the 8100 was at the end of its life over a year ago meaning that production has stopped and Fido should not be able to order any. However, it is possible that Fido could take on whatever 8100s its parent company Rogers hasn’t been able to sell, have the Fido logo slapped on the antenna cover, get a box printed up and call it a day. The problem with that option is that when booting up the phone a Rogers logo would appear as it’s burnt into the firmware. Sure, Fido could use the VSM tool to swap in a Fido logo but that would be so much work considering it would need to upgrade all 8100s from OS 4.2.1 to 4.5. Time will tell, but at least BlackBerry is looking closer than ever for Fido users.

Just because it’s Christmas doesn’t mean that the mobile phone industry is safe from leaks. HoFo user clearskies08 has posted pictures which are purported to be from an internal Rogers and Fido flagship presentation. They reveal all of the flagship smartphones that the two carriers plan to release in 2009. Virtually every single phone in the line-up has been written about before in one way or another so we’ll spare you their specs, but rest assured, if even one quarter of the phones in the presentation end up hitting store shelves, 2009 is looking to be a hell of a year for Rogers and its dog. Hit the jump for a complete list of handsets along with images from the presentation.

• Blackberry 82XX Pearl Flip (3G version of 8220 Pearl Flip but with GPS, WiFi, and video calling)
• Blackberry 9520 Storm (North American 3G GSM bands and 802.11 b/g WiFi)
• HTC Touch 3G
• HTC Touch Pro
• HTC Touch Viva
• Motorola MOTOZINE ZN5
• Motorola Q11
• Motorola VE66
• Nokia N79
• Nokia N85
• Nokia N96
• Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
• Samsung M8800 Pixon
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X1a
• Sony Ericsson C905

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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If you live in Canada and you’re thinking of asking for a BlackBerry during Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/the coming of Zombie Jesus/whatever, you might wanna think twice. Word has reached us by way of our infamous ninjas, and there are some goodies about to be available in Canada. First we should talk about Rogers. Long has it been known that they’re going to be carrying the BlackBerry Curve 8900, but now we can say for sure that they’re going to be launching it in January 2009 with a $149.99 price tag on a 3-year voice and data deal. Also coming to Rogers is something so terrible that we almost lost the will to live at BGR — a pink BlackBerry Bold. Yeah, that’s right, pink. While were not exactly sure if the whole device or just parts of it will be pink, you can rest assured that it will be heinous extremely popular.

As for Fido, a lot of people doubted that Fido would be offering BlackBerry devices and services since their low-cost re-branding. However, word is that the second week of December is when Fido is planning to launch the BlackBerry 8120 Pearl in both Oyster Pink (some call it Sandstone, a la AT&T) and Grey. In Q1, we’ve got word that Fido will be launching the BlackBerry 8220 Pearl with a projected price of $50 on a 2-year contract.

Oh yeah! There’s also some talk that Rogers/Fido are going to be releasing some new data plans this Friday. We’ll look into this for y’all. Hit the jump for your first look at the BlackBerry Bold in pink!

Thanks SaxMan!

Oh whatever, we tried.