A Canadian iPhone, eh? It's aboot time!

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 29 April 2008 21:25

Your IT - Mobility

Canada will officially get the iPhone, ‘later this year’, according to the CEO of Rogers Communications, Canada’s dominant telco – surely it’ll be the 3G iPhone?

Wow... Canada finally gets the iPhone, and it may finally force Rogers Communications, one of the most expensive telecommunications companies in the western world, to offer realistic pricing.

Unfortunately, that probably won’t happen, with Canadians likely ending up with one of the world’s most expensive iPhone plans instead.

Still, with Rogers having having a 3.5G HSDPA network on the 850Mhz band, as does AT&T in the US, and Telstra in Australia, it seems completely improbably that Apple would force 2G iPhones on the world for much longer, with 3.5G so very much faster.

Ted Rogers, President and CEO of Rogers Communications, broke the news that the iPhone was coming – but gave very little additional detail.

In a press release issued by Rogers Communications, Ted Rogers is quoted as saying “We're thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year. We can't tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned.”

And that's it! The sum total of the press release, beyond a boilerplate explanation of Rogers' existing businesses.

Sadly, this statement doesn’t confirm that the 3G iPhone is coming, or that Rogers Communications is going to get it. But what else could it be?

Rogers is the only provider of GSM and 3.5G HSDPA voice and data services in Canada, with competitors offering a CDMA network instead, a mobile phone technology that Apple has shown no interest in pursuing.

So... I wonder if “later this year” means late June, when it is expected that 3G iPhones will start appearing – after a Steve Jobs keynote announcement at the Apple WorldWide Developers Conference (WWDC) starting on June 9 this year, a mere 6 weeks away.

Aboot time, eh? For Australian readers, let’s hope our own 3G iPhone launch is announced – and becomes available – at the same time!