Bell today announced new Smartphone Combo Plans that provide Bell Mobility clients across Canada with 25% more minutes than competitor smartphone plans. “Smartphones are leading the growth in Canadian wireless and Bell is eager to accelerate that popularity further still with new industry-leading rate plans for our broad range of RIM BlackBerry and Windows Mobile smartphones,” said Wade Oosterman, President of Bell Mobility. “With 25 percent more calling than competing carriers’ plans, smartphones just got better with Bell.”
Until December 31, new Bell Mobility clients who sign a three-year contract can choose between three Smartphone Combo Plans, starting at $45 per month. All plans include conference calling and call waiting. Continue reading
The battle over the BlackBerry Storm in Canada is sure to heat up now that we’ve been given details outlining a synchronized launch on both Bell and Telus. With Vodafone UK launching the Storm last Friday and Verizon Wireless in the US launching this Friday, the buzz is building and expectations are at an all-time high. The good news here is that customers will be the biggest winners when Bell and Telus launch the Storm in December since both companies plan on offering the lowest price and best incentives.
Friday a memo was sent to all bell retail managers revealing that both of the Canadian carriers will ironically be releasing the Storm on the exact same day. All employees must complete mandatory training by December 8th leading many to believe that this is the actual launch date. The leak went on to say he, “received emails stating that our current Bell BlackBerry live demos (currently stores either have the 8130 or 8330) all will be replaced with Storms on or around the 5th of December. No actual release date, but with demo units shipping the 5th we should see it in Canada by the 10th of December.”
Bell is very exited to add the Storm to their powerful 3G BlackBerry lineup. Testing on the Bell network has already started taking place. The BlackBerry storm will be launching in Canada shortly after the US release on November 21st. Training as outlined in the memo consists of the following:
Training
In preparation for this much-anticipated launch, several training tools will be released for Sales Consultants. These tools will provide Sales Consultants with the ability to:
* Understand what the Blackberry Storm can offer valued clients.
* learn why the Blackberry Storm is better with bell, and
* win the sale!
The Table below outlines the training tools that will be available on the Bell Training site (bell.ca/training) in the ‘What’s New’ section, along with training delivery dates, and completion due dates
1. Job Aid: Getting the Right 3G Blackberry for your Clients
Delivery Date: 11/14/2008
Completion Due Date: 11/21/2008
2. Job Aid: Blackberry Competitive Comparison
Delivery Date: 11/19/2008
Completion Due Date: 11/26/2008
3. Job Aid: Blackberry Storm
Delivery Date: 11/19/2008
Completion Due Date: 11/26/2008
4. Web Based Training: Blackberry Storm Online Training
Delivery Date: 11/21/2008
Completion Due Date: 12/05/2008
5. Video: Blackberry Storm Video
Delivery Date: 12/01/2008
Completion Due Date: 12/08/2008
All Management level
Via BGR
MONTREAL, Quebec, Oct. 10 /CNW Telbec/ - Bell today announced a significant strategic investment in its Third Generation (3G) wireless network capabilities to ensure it offers Canadians the complete range of high-speed mobile data coverage, services and handset options. The investment also confirms the company’s migration path to the global Fourth Generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard.
“Investing in broadband networks and services and accelerating wireless are strategic imperatives for the Bell team, and they are key to achieving our goal - to be recognized by customers as Canada’s leading communications company,” said George Cope, President and Chief Executive Officer of BCE and Bell Canada.
“This investment initiative builds on our industry-leading wireless service - which already offers access to the largest and fastest network across North America- to deliver Canadians the broadest choice in high-speed wireless service, while confirming our path forward to LTE, the global 4G wireless broadband standard.”
Via Bell Press Release
Bell Mobility can now join Telus as the second carrier in Canada expected to launch the BlackBerry Storm next month. The first-ever touch screen BlackBerry smartphone is really making waves across the Internet thanks to the razor sharp high resolution screen and full HTML web browsing. The click-able screen and 3.2 megapixel camera are only helping the device build a bit of momentum going into pre-launch period and RIM should be nothing short of delighted. With both GSM and CDMA network support, Bell Mobility users should have no problem traveling in North America or around the world. As usual there is no exact release date issued by Bell, but we are still expecting a November launch.
Via Bell
The LG Wine (KF300) will finally be making its North American debut next month on Bell Canada. We told you about the device launching in Europe and Japan back in July, and soon Canadian will have a chance to get their hands on this highly fashionable device for $79.99 CAD on a 3-year contract. The LG Wine features an exterior screen measuring 1.3 inches and 128 x 160 pixels while the interior screen is 2.2 inches and QVGA resolution, GPS, Bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel camera and “quick preset keys” for major phone functions.
There will be two color choices at launch: black and gold, but it looks like there is a change in specs versus the European launch. The camera was 2.0 megapixel on the European and Japanese releases, and it has been downgraded to 1.3 megapixel. Hopefully this is just a typographical error by Bell and the device ends up being exactly the same as the KF300 we saw mid Summer.
Source
This Fall, Canadians will be getting their hands on several high-end devices including the BlackBerry Thunder/Storm, BlackBerry Javelin and the HTC Touch Diamond. Now that the BlackBerry Javelin has officially become the BlackBerry Curve 8900 and the Thunder has moved onto become the Storm we can finally get to the important pieces of information, the release dates. According to MobileSyrup, the BlackBerry Curve 8900 will be releasing on Bell’s network sometime in November along with the release of the BlackBerry Thunder/Storm. But before either the Curve 8900 or Storm hit Canada, Bell will be launching the HTC Touch Diamond on October 15th.
Continue reading
Canada’s recent radio spectrum auction will give birth to a new wireless carrier for the country. Globalive Communications, one of the winners in the auction, paid CA$442 million for licenses that would cover all of Canada except Quebec. The company is currently searching for network infrastructure, but has reached a shortlist of two bidders for the job. Their intention is simple, launch a new Canadian wireless network in the second half of 2009, starting with a test service for “friendly customers” and followed by a commercial launch a few months later.
The big 3 in Canada, Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless and Telus have all posted their current subscriber numbers. Bell Mobility ending the first quarter with 6.25 million customers, Rogers Wireless ended with 7.58 million and Telus finished up with 5.66 million. Based on population, there is considerable growth potential in the Canadian wireless market (current population: 33 million), but the big question is how many of those remaining 13 million Canadians want to test drive a new network. Although I am sure most of you will just be glad if the added competition drops the data prices.
Source
It’s nice to have an exclusive device launch every now and then, but when another country beats you to the punch out of nowhere, it stings. Canada’s Bell Mobility has taken the reigns as the first North American carrier to offer the Sanyo Katana Eclipse starting today. The Katana Eclipse will be available for $49.95 on a 3 year contract, $99.95 on a 2 year contract, $224.95 on a 1 year contract and $274.95 free and clear.
With 10MB of internal memory, 1.3 megapixel camera, a MP3 Player, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, 2 inch internal display and 1 inch external display, this stylish flip-phone is all about the price point. It is affordable and if history repeats itself, Sanyo flip phones have some of the best reception in our experiences.
Bell Sanyo Katana Eclipse
The Canadian AWS auctions are coming to a close and the talk of the town is the future of CDMA networks. With GSM networks dominating the global market with 88% of the worldwide subscribers and rising at nearly 2.84 percent per year, CDMA networks are nearing the end of their lifespan. The future of high-speed cellular data networks is focused on LTE (Long Term Evolution) 4G and Canadian carriers hoping to compete with Rogers have reached this realization.
The big question for Telus and Bell Canada is whether they will enter the GSM game with 3G HSPA or 4G LTE networks and hopefully at the conclusion of the AWS auctions we will have our answer. With limited handsets and only 385 million subscribers worldwide, the 3.085 billion GSM customers have cell phone manufacturers focused on releasing fewer CDMA devices each quarter.
While many customers might see the end of CDMA networks in Canada as a negative trend, the ability to switch phones by simply inserting a SIM card and buying unlocked phones not sold by your carrier offer a tremendous advantage. By having 3 wireless carriers in Canada running off GSM networks, the heightened competition will lead to lower wireless plans and a greater variety of cell phones to choose from, ultimately increasing the motivation for manufacturers like RIM and HTC to deliver devices faster to the market.
No details have been announced on when Telus and Bell Canada will be phasing out their CDMA networks in favor of GSM, but the sooner we see the transition the better chance we will see unlimited GSM data plans. Those of you who signed the petition to force Rogers Wireless towards offering competitive data plans for the iPhone 3G and BlackBerry Bold should be first in line to support the GSM transition for Telus and Bell Canada.
First the Samsung Instinct has a meeting with Bell Mobility and now Canadian carrier Telus is scheduled to pickup the HTC Touch Diamond in CDMA flavor. Things are going to get very exciting for our friends to the north as our favorite Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer, HTC, has made good on their promise to bring the infamous HTC Touch Diamond to North American soil. While we would have preferred a GSM version compatible with At&t 3G, a CDMA version for Telus should excite both Verizon Wireless and Sprint customers with the possibility of being next in line. As it stands, we have confirmation from the FCC filing that Sprint will be launching the HTC Raphael / Touch Pro and we have also spotted the HTC Touch Diamond in Sprint attire. While the confirmation is nice, the real prize will be the HTC Touch Diamond price tag for Telus customers.
At only $149.99 with a 3 year contract, the $700+ price tags floating around eBay will seem like a distant memory when Telus launches the HTC Touch Diamond. The 2.8 inch VGA touchscreen complete with WiFi, 3.0 megapixel camera and running on Windows Mobile 6.1 will go head on against the Samsung Instinct on Bell Mobility. On the back burner, the iPhone 3G will be debuting on Rogers next week giving customers the choice of 3 high-end touch screen devices each with their own unique features and data plans. The big advantage when it comes to Telus is their $15/month unlimited email and IM plan alongside a $30/month unlimited Internet, email and IM add-on.
