Bell, Telus to sell iPhones next month
Last Updated: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 | 10:25 AM ET
CBC News
Bell and Telus have reached agreements to sell Apple's iPhone in Canada this November.
Bell will begin selling Apple's iPhone to Canadian customers in November. (Associated Press) The iPhone addition was long rumoured to be a part of the next-generation high-speed network that the two companies have been building together.
Late Monday, the two companies announced that the network, originally expected to be ready in time for the Winter Olympics in February, would be ready months ahead of schedule.
The new network will offer mobile internet speeds up to 21 megabits per second, with more than 20,000 towns and cities covered, they said.
On Tuesday, both Bell and Telus confirmed they would begin selling the popular iPhone as early as November as part of the new network.
The two companies did not reveal what sort of pricing plans they would offer for the device. But it's unlikely that their plans would be wildly different from those offered by Rogers, as Apple maintains significant control on how and at what prices its sellers offer the device.
Rogers has had a de facto exclusive on the device since last summer because it had the only compatible cellphone network.
Rogers had been using the GSM and HSPA standard, while Bell and Telus were on the CDMA standard.
Rogers has already begun rollout of a network that offers the same speeds. Currently, virtually no existing phones — including the iPhone 3G S — can handle these speeds, though new ones are expected to.
