Will Bell Mobility get a CDMA iPhone instead of Rogers in Canada?
7:34PM, January 06, 2008 - [ Permalink]
I would like to start this off with a caveat: I do not have any secret inside source at Bell Canada, Apple or deep within the Canadian Shadow Government (that I'll admit to publicly, anyhow).
Many people are wondering why the iPhone isn't available in Canada yet. There is no real technical reason, many Canadians have gone down to the US and purchased the iPhone and gotten it working on the Rogers Network.
Why did Apple/Rogers miss the 2007 Christmas shopping frenzy?
Here is what I speculate:
Rogers currently has most of the Blackberry customers that I'm aware of, and is seriously milking them for every cent, and therefore isn't likely to want to have an affordable unlimited data plan like what AT&T are offering with the iPhone - it would hurt their profits.
Negotiations perhaps fell through on the price of service that Apple wanted compared to what Rogers wanted, or maybe some other point - who knows.
Apple is rumoured to have a 3G phone in the works for early 2008 and from what I understand, battery endurance was the primary issue (3G needs more power).
If negotiations with Rogers fell through, and Apple knowing that a 3G iPhone was imminent, may have started dealing with Bell Mobility, which would be quite a coup for Bell, especially with the sex appeal of the iPhone with geeks and the public at large. As we saw in the US, people abandoned other cell providers in droves to get an iPhone, and I would expect similar behaviour here in Canada.
I would imagine that for gaining market share Bell might be willing to rearrange its data rate plans to be more pocketbook-friendly, especially in light of the potential introduction of more cell providers in the near future.
If I had to pick a date this would happen, I would say it *might* get announced at the upcoming Macworld 2008 Keynote and released this summer, although I would imagine the Bell deal would be announced later on, perhaps closer to the release date of the 3G phone.
The catch: CDMA iPhone
For this fantasy to become reality, Apple would have to release a CDMA version of the iPhone (Thanks Nick), which, if you believe the rumours won't be seen for five years... in the US, anyway. I doubt there is anything stopping Apple from releasing a CDMA iPhone in other countries (like Canada).
Sure, this is a way-out-in-left-field thought, but that still doesn't make it any less wish-worthy, especially since I'm already with Bell. ;-) Now, let's cross our fingers and see what happens.
