New wireless carriers comming to Canada?

[KingstonU]

My friends keep saying to wait before upgrading my phone because new cell phone carriers are right around the corner before the end of the year. Can anyone confirm this or tell me where I can find information? Websites/blogs that cover this subject?

More carriers are soooo badly needed because Rogers, Bell and Telus have enjoyed charging us the highest rates compared to Europe and the US with no competition to make things reasonable for all too long. Slapping us with 3-year contracts and charging us for BS things like incomming calls, Caller ID and caller Display etc....

 

[nickbits]

don't hold your breath.

 

[2Xtreme21]

Not to be a douche, but companies are in it to make as much money as possible. If people will pay for three-year contracts and insane surcharges, it'd be stupid for a company (new or existing) to ever change that.

But here's to hoping a good samaritan carrier finds its way up there. P)

 

[pm]

There are two new carriers coming. Globalive (Yak) Communications, and Quebecor (Videotron).

Videotron is slowly expanding out of Quebec. They said in 2008 they will spend CDN$4 billion in the next 4 years, but the recession seems to have slowed those plans considerably. http://www.videotron.com/servi...eless/coverage-roaming

Globalive won a contiguous chunk of Canadian-wide spectrum in the last wireless spectrum auction. They are probably the company whom your friend was talking about. There are two problems. One is the current recession slowed down their plans at least a bit, and second their spectrum isn't compatible with any handsets that you can buy. They are on a chunk of frequency that no one else is - a bit like like T-Mobile USA and their AWS band. They say they will start to roll out service - except in Quebec - in 2010. http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/615352

If it was me personally, I don't think I would wait around for these guys. Plans are likely to slip until the economy improves.