No iPhone for you Canada!

I was informed by informed sources (and this is probably old news) that they'll be no iPhones for Canadians, unless you're willing to pay Cingular roaming charges. I was planning on getting an iPhone but found out that a) the plan is locked to Cingular b) Cingular only services the U.S. c) you cannot simply drop in a SIM card from any other provider as iPhones are locked to the Cingular provider.

My personal opinion is that Apple should have unlocked the phone and let you use any carrier. Okay, so they wouldn't have got the big bucks they're obviously getting from Cingular but if you crunch the numbers (and I'm sure they did) I would think you would have more hardware sales than payola in the long run. Guess not, so until Steve Jobs calls me up and puts me in that position it's no iPhone for us Canucks.

Update: I was doing a little blog sleuthing and came across various rumours about Rogers being a carrier for the iPhone. However a) it's about 6 months out at best b) there's no official word that I can find and c) more informed (non-official) sources tell me this is false. Gizmodo says it's "confirmed" but I have doubts. Every report though says "a customer service email" or "customer service representative". To me, that's not official in any capacity.

Someone will obviously hack this and probably within 6 months (or sooner) you could use one up here, but otherwise the only way would be to get a Cingular plan then pay roaming fees all the time. I may have good consultating rates, but not that good.

Anyways, now I'm looking at the HTCs as people are saying they're good. Looking for any suggestions from anyone on model. There was an article a few days ago Forbes on iPhone alternatives so they look pretty good. Let me know what you recommend?

6 Comments

  • That is so NOT fair. I'm in UK and I wanted to get my friend get me an iPhone from US. This sounds like I won't be having it until the end of the year. APPLE THIS IS SO NOT COOL.

    But I'm not sure as they spoke in the key note that they be selling through two channels 1) Cingular 2) Apple outlets. I believe the phones from Apple outlets be NOT locked. Can anybody please update?

  • Heh, even in the US, it's spotty. Cingular (ala AT&T) doesn't have full, nationwide service, inspite of what their map says. I live in a suburb of a 1.5mil population metro area (*cough* yes, it's in Kansas, but we have cities here too!) and Cingular drops off about 10 miles from my house. Ehh. So, since I use my cell phone as my home phone/work phone/general way to reach me, that's a no-go.

    I actually have a T-Mobile (and 4-bars of signal) Wing and love it. With the Wifi, it's pretty slick to walk into my home or work and have it auto-sync with Exchange before I even sit down. It's fairly light, easy to see in sunlight or in the car, has a loud speakerphone, and is small enough to fit in my pocket.

    The Forbes link you posted has it in there, but it doesn't look that... cheap... really. Also, being Windows Mobile 6, I can develop for it (ala, find ways to crash it) and it fits into our corporate strategy to roll out mobile software.

    Good luck!

  • You can get a N95 at tigerdirect.ca for a decent price and its a much better phone than the iphone. Why pay for a phone that is more hype than functionality?

  • Actually, I talked to Rogers about it and they said they were expecting the IPhone about 3-6 months after it's US release (probably sometime next year). They're the exclusive carrier in Canada the same way that Cingular is for the States!

  • Apple isn't releasing a CDMA version of the iPhone *shrugs* That means Rogers...

  • Why in the world do people keep saying that "it's coming". The blog post Ian listed is his own and says "I have it on slightly better authority from an unnamable closer-to-the-source Rogers employee...". My god. That's like saying "I saw the apprehension of Sarah Good who did most greviously afflect me by pinching and pricking me". Sheesh. Stop spreading FUD people and bring some facts to the internet will ya!

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