[Big_Ern]

So if i buy the 9900 off Rogers, then put my Bell sim card inside, what do i expect?

If you unlock it, it will work 100% exactly the same as if you had bought it fom Bell.

The guy who said gsm phones will not work is on crack. Actually I think its just a missunderstanding on his terminology and he is saying gsm meaning oldschool non-3G gsm phones (edge only) will not work on telus/bell which is correct. However any new gsm smart phone will have 3G and work on telus/bell no problem

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[mssca]

So if i buy the 9900 off Rogers, then put my Bell sim card inside, what do i expect?

I think it will not work, since Rogers is actually a full GSM service provider.

[DeeDudnath]

it wont work lol!

[Big_Ern]

Fark you guys are dumb... It WILL work on Bell. But only 3G, not edge as telus/bell only have a 3g gsm network. They have no edge network to fall back on....

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[wirelessgal]

So if i buy the 9900 off Rogers, then put my Bell sim card inside, what do i expect?

It will work on 3G. However if there's a 3G outage, you have nothing to fall back on because Bell does not have the 2G aka GSM network. You have to get it unlocked as well. That will NOT void the warranty.

[narci]

i still think you have the terminology mixed up.

gsm overall includes gprs, edge, 2g, 3g.

GSM - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
GSM carrier frequencies
Main article: GSM frequency bands
GSM networks operate in a number of different carrier frequency ranges (separated into GSM frequency ranges for 2G and UMTS frequency bands for 3G), with most 2G GSM networks operating in the 900*MHz or 1800*MHz bands. Where these bands were already allocated, the 850*MHz and 1900*MHz bands were used instead (for example in Canada and the United States). In rare cases the 400 and 450*MHz frequency bands are assigned in some countries because they were previously used for first-generation systems.
Most 3G networks in Europe operate in the 2100*MHz frequency band.
Regardless of the frequency selected by an operator, it is divided into timeslots for individual phones to use. This allows eight full-rate or sixteen half-rate speech channels per radio frequency. These eight radio timeslots (or eight burst periods) are grouped into a TDMA frame. Half rate channels use alternate frames in the same timeslot. The channel data rate for all 8 channels is 270.833*kbit/s, and the frame duration is 4.615*ms.
The transmission power in the handset is limited to a maximum of 2 watts in GSM850/900 and 1 watt in GSM1800/1900.

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[wirelessgal]

3G is HSPA, not GSM. GSM is 2G, Edge and GPRS. Bell and Telus do not have GSM towers. They have their CDMA and 3G HSPA towers.

[narci]

hmmm just googling telus gsm brings this up..i'm guessing many people got it wrong.

telus gsm - Google Search

[wirelessgal]

Exactly. And the reason why Bell and Telus changed their minds about switching to GSM is because it would cost them over a billion dollars if they did it last year. Bell waited too long.

[Sparro]

Telus and Bell are HSPA+/UMTS network running on bands 850/1900. Which was 3G+ just like Rogers, They re-branded their network just like AT&T did south of us to 4G.
Real 4G will be LTE which Rogers, Telus and Bell will all start to migrate to in 2012.
Telus and Bell WILL shut down their CDMA network in the future, the exact time has not been given. They are trying to get their customers to switch over to HSPA and at some point they will close the switch on CDMA just like what happened with analog.
Yes, Rogers has 2G EDGE as well as 3G HSPA+. If you drop their 3G signal you go to 2G EDGE. Telus and Bell only have 3G HSPA+/UMTS . They will not drop the signal and be screwed if they lose 3G because they overlayed their network on top of their CDMA network. They cover 93% of the country. They don't have 2G GSM EDGE but they don't need it because their coverage is better than Rogers. For your Rogers phone to work on Telus and Bell it has to have HSPA/UMTS 850/1900 and it will work like a dream. Of course it will need to be unlocked.
Thats it.. thats the truth... period.

[highos]

Telus and Bell are HSPA+/UMTS network running on bands 850/1900. Which was 3G+ just like Rogers, They re-branded their network just like AT&T did south of us to 4G.
Real 4G will be LTE which Rogers, Telus and Bell will all start to migrate to in 2012.
Telus and Bell WILL shut down their CDMA network in the future, the exact time has not been given. They are trying to get their customers to switch over to HSPA and at some point they will close the switch on CDMA just like what happened with analog.
Yes, Rogers has 2G EDGE as well as 3G HSPA+. If you drop their 3G signal you go to 2G EDGE. Telus and Bell only have 3G HSPA+/UMTS . They will not drop the signal and be screwed if they lose 3G because they overlayed their network on top of their CDMA network. They cover 93% of the country. They don't have 2G GSM EDGE but they don't need it because their coverage is better than Rogers. For your Rogers phone to work on Telus and Bell it has to have HSPA/UMTS 850/1900 and it will work like a dream. Of course it will need to be unlocked.
Thats it.. thats the truth... period.

Everyone... please read this posting!!!

Tired of all the misinformation in this thread. Not having EDGE, etc is not a big deal for Telus/Bell. I get just as good reception (with Telus) as anyone I know on Rogers, being able to fall back is not a big deal. In fact, we've evaluated switching at work to Rogers and for a lot of our applications (esp once you get out of the city/major highways) the coverage is just not there. I'm not a huge Telus/Bell fanboi by any definition, I actually hate the big three here in Canada. But stop making it sound like being able to fall back to EDGE is such a big deal. Calling it GSM is just a group of technologies, which IMHO includes HSPA/bands used by all three now. Everyone should just be glad we're moving off CDMA and now have SIM cards-offers a lot more choice for everyone in the market.

And for the record I use a Rogers Torch 9800 unlocked on Telus without issue on the HSPA bands.

[sookster54]

Yeah no GSM bands on Bell/Telus kind of suck, I set my phone to WCDMA only (HSPA bands only) to save battery because if the signal gets low the phone would flip back and forth searching for a good signal and that's pointless with no GSM available.

[satanberry]

Just look at the low end BlackBerry phones that the carriers sell. All 3 sell 9700, 9780 and Torch. But when you move down to the non-3G phones, Rogers sells the sim card Curve 8520 while Bell /Telus sell the cdma Curve 8530.

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[greggebhardt]

I have never heard so many "I think" and "my understanding".

All rumor till it is announced.

[Bla1ze]

Really?

When DIDN'T a Canadian carrier get a BlackBerry ahead of everyone else? Rogers, Bell and TELUS 9/10 always get BB devices and with them all using GSM it doesn't matter who gets them first.

Basically all it means is any SIM will work in any device, the only thing you won't get is EDGE when bringing a Rogers device to Bell or TELUS because they ONLY have 3G. If you fall out of 3G coverage then you won't have service. Which, chances of that are pretty slim to none unless you live in the boonies.

[wirelessgal]

One of the advantages of going with a GSM provider is if you're very low on battery life, you can switch to 2G and your battery life will not drain as fast as being on 3G. I have done that several times and believe me, it helps.

[satanberry]

I'm with Rogers and I agree that EDGE does help with battery life. I'll be buying my 9900 from Bell when it hits Canada because lately Bell has been selling phones that do not have any carrier logos or splash screens. The Torch, 9300 and 9780 are all like that. I hope that trend continues with the 9900.

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[Masahiro]

I'm with Rogers and I agree that EDGE does help with battery life. I'll be buying my 9900 from Bell when it hits Canada because lately Bell has been selling phones that do not have any carrier logos or splash screens. The Torch, 9300 and 9780 are all like that. I hope that trend continues with the 9900.

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No splash screens? That's good. I'll buy mine from them as well then just for the resale value.

[greggebhardt]

You can bet Rogers will likely get it before any of us, stateside. I have seen it be a month before and also a few days. I have bought many of a Roger$ from a Canadian to run on AT&T.

[satanberry]

No splash screens? That's good. I'll buy mine from them as well then just for the resale value.

Yup me too. Just make sure you turn it on to check.
Go Canucks Go!

[wirelessgal]

I'm with Rogers and I agree that EDGE does help with battery life. I'll be buying my 9900 from Bell when it hits Canada because lately Bell has been selling phones that do not have any carrier logos or splash screens. The Torch, 9300 and 9780 are all like that. I hope that trend continues with the 9900.

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Is it confirmed that Bell will be picking up the 9900? They might go with the 9930.

[Big_Ern]

Bell will NOT go with a cdma device. Like its been said already they are phasing out their cdma network...

Good to know about bell not having logos & splash screens... Good thing my contract is up for renewal so I'll get one direct instead of buying elsewhere...

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[Masahiro]

Is it confirmed that Bell will be picking up the 9900? They might go with the 9930.

Again, that makes no sense according to Bell's latest trends. Their last CDMA-exclusive BlackBerrys were the Curve 8530, and the Storm 9550 (EOL) from over a year ago. It's clear that they're transitioning away from their CDMA network and utilizing their new HSPA network.

With the 9930, although you'll still have access to HSPA, you're giving up on HSPA+. I think that's a huge drawback for consumers just for the sake of having CDMA to fall back on. While not having any network coverage at all can be a big deal whenever that happens, it hasn't stopped Bell from releasing BlackBerrys like the 9100, Curve 3G, 9800 and the 9780 that all take advantage of only their HSPA network.

They're not going to cater to the small percentage of people that may get stuck in an HSPA dead-zone and take away the HSPA+ option for all others in areas with good coverage. That's just an open invitation to carriers like Rogers to steal all those customers, put them on comparable plans, and provide them with a phone that will be compatible with the faster network.

[satanberry]

Bell could have released the 9330 or the 9105 but they didn't. They went with 9300 and 9100 which makes me think they will release the 9900 and not the 9930. I have nothing to back that up of course.

[wirelessgal]

The way I see it is Bell will release whichever version comes out first. If the 9930 was released first, you wanna bet Bell will grab it? Bell will do anything to compete with Rogers. Rogers won't carry the 9930, period. But Bell can. Bell can go either way. It has nothing to do with CDMA being phased out whenever Bell decides to do so. It's all about competition. They carry the 9800 and the 9780 because there isn't a CDMA version. The Big 3 hate each other. So I won't be surprised if Bell picks up the 9900 because I'm pretty sure that will be out before the 9930. This is just my opinion.