Hey, you in the read with the pitchfork and the fur coat! What is that you’re reporting? What just froze over?
http://ctv2.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20091005.wiphone1005/business/Business/businessBN/ctv-business
Reporting a CTV story:
BCE Inc.’s Bell Canada and Telus Corp. will begin selling the iPhone next month, breaking the stranglehold on the device that their rival Rogers Communications Inc. has held for more than a year.
Both carriers hope the addition of Apple Inc.’s groundbreaking smart phone to their lineups will help them sign up higher-value customers and shift the balance of power in Canada’s mobile market.
Bell announced on Monday that it will launch in November, months ahead of schedule, the next-generation wireless network it has been building with Telus. The build-out extends the companies’ existing 3G (third generation) network to include the same technology standard employed by Rogers, the nation’s largest cellphone company.
Telus has yet to give an indication of when it will begin offering service on the new network.
Until now, Rogers has enjoyed a Canadian monopoly on that standard, known as high-speed packet access (HSPA), as well as its precursor GSM, and with it, one of the hottest products of the IT age. The iPhone, which is a GSM-based device, has helped drive the company’s wireless growth through the recession by 7 per cent this year. Rogers has said its iPhone customers spend 1 1/2 more than their average wireless subscriber.
Neither Bell nor Telus would confirm that they would add the iPhone to their lineups. Apple also declined to comment. But people familiar with the matter said the two carriers will announce a working partnership with Apple as early as Tuesday or Wednesday and begin selling the device in time for the launch of their new network next month.
Apple demands strict terms from phone companies carrying the iPhone, which limit the carriers’ ability to cut prices or differentiate their subscription plans significantly. But for consumers, the news will mean at the very least greater supply of the device as well as more choice in service providers and bundled offers for other services, such as home phone, Internet or television connections.
The iPhone has proved a double-edged sword for Rogers and other wireless operators around the world carrying the device. The smart phone attracts more customers, and specifically users who spend more money that the average mobile phone client. But it requires a heavy subsidy from the carriers, which eats into their profitability.
For example, Rogers’ revenue from wireless data increased 40 per cent in the first six months of the year to $611-million. But the company’s profitability has been squeezed by the cost of subsidizing the iPhone and other smart phones. Rogers spent $479-million on handset subsidies in the first six months, an increase of 59 per cent.
Apple’s fortunes have soared with the iPhone. But the phone companies are realizing that they have to balance the cost of their subsidies with the value of the customers the device brings in.
For Bell, which has managed to cut its wireless customer acquisition costs recently, the iPhone should help spur much-needed growth. The company added only 45,000 new mobile phone customers, compared with 142,000 for Rogers and 111,000 for Telus.
For Telus, Apple’s smart phone should help it bolster its average revenue per user, which declined nearly 7 per cent in the second quarter.
Bell and Telus have rushed to get their new network in place before the holiday shopping season. Bell argues that its version is more advanced than Rogers’ because it uses the latest version of the standard, called HSPA+, which is capable of download speeds of up to 21 megabits per second. Rogers, which has used GSM technology since 2001, is still in the process of converting its entire national network to the HSPA+ standard. Last month it said the new technology is in place in five cities: Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
Bell and Telus announced a year ago that they would put aside their historic rivalries to build the HSPA network together. They said the partnership would allow them to split the approximate $1-billion cost and to get to market sooner.
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October 6th, 2009 at 6:30 am
yessss!!!!! thnaks a lot great info i’ve been waiting for telus to have an iphone..
October 6th, 2009 at 6:46 am
I’m not sure when Telus will start selling iPhones but here is Bell’s *official* announcement:
http://www.bce.ca/en/news/releases/bm/2009/10/06/75222.html
>Bell Canada press statement
MONTREAL, ON, Oct. 6 2009 — Bell and Apple have reached an
agreement to bring iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS to Canada this November.
To learn more about Bell’s new 3G network, please visit bell.ca/network
or bell.ca/reseau.
Bell is Canada’s largest communications company, providing consumers and
business with solutions to all their communications needs, including Bell
Mobility wireless, high-speed Bell Internet, Bell TV direct-to-home satellite
television, Bell Home phone local and long distance, and IP-broadband and
information and communications technology (ICT) services. Bell is proud to be
a Premier National Partner and the exclusive Telecommunications Partner to
the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
Bell is wholly owned by BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE). For information on
Bell’s products and services, please visit bell.ca. For BCE corporate
information, please visit bce.ca.
October 6th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Telus just made it official:
http://www.telusmobility.com/en/ON/home/
October 6th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Anyone considering negotiating a “retentions” deal with Rogers take note: it’s going to get easier, possibly sweeter, in the next few months as these other GSM carriers come into play. You can unlock your Rogers phone and switch; heck, you can even keep your number with cell phone number portability. What will they do to keep you as a customer?
That said, what will Bell/Telus do to get you as a customer? It isn’t enough to offer the iPhone on a network that will be new and, for all anybody knows, fraught with problems. Expect your signal to be great, mostly, at first though, until data congestion ramps up. And don’t expect posted speeds to materialize from any wireless carrier; like internet at home, speeds are never what they say.
Still, let them compete for us as iPhone customers, and see what happens. It’s a brand new day, if not a brave new world.
October 7th, 2009 at 5:41 am
Exactly Michael,
The only GOOD thing i see is the fact now there may be price breaks, and deals to be scored.
I wont hold my breath on the signal quality of Telus or Bell at this point. I have horrid times with their signal at times where i live. and my GF’s phone is with Telus and it is bad at the best of times.
With this new combination i will choose to name Bellus, i see only good for us Rogers/Fido customers.
I am VERY interested to see how this will effect upgrading to the Next iphone that comes out next year. since we all know apple has released a new iphone every year since the iphone came out the first time.
but i will be happy to see people jump ship to Bellus. Bell has a history of Fskin things up so lets see how Telus keeps them in check.
:D