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Rogers on Bell & Telus launching the iPhone
Rogers announced their Q3 2009 results yesterday and revenues were up by 7% and they activated over 370,000 devices. Pretty good for these “challenging economic times”.
In a conference call about the results Rogers President & CEO Nadir Mohamed spoke about the upcoming news that Bell and TELUS will be competing with them for iPhone market share in Canada. He stated that offering a new device isn’t enough… “I don’t think people should get confused: the idea that somebody announces that they have the technology of choice is very different from actually having a network that has the reliability and quality that we have”.
Your thoughts?
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26 comments for “Rogers on Bell & Telus launching the iPhone”
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What? Nothing exciting to come back with? Sounds like Rogers has nothing up their sleeves and is worried that they are losing their competitive edge.
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Nadir is shaking in his boots.
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Maybe they should solidify their network before calling another kettle black.
What happens when people find out that the new network is in fact BETTER.
Those words is going to come back and haunt them.
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april Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Well people as well need to understand that when telus releases the iphone that there network for the hspa to support the data for the phone will only be that, Rogers has the hspa as well the edge network. So what does that mean well if on telus the hspa network goes down there is nothing for it to fall back on meaning not able to access the web on your new bell or telus iphone. With Rogers there is the fall back that we have, hspa network not work we fall back to the edge network. You will still have access to the web if the rogers hspa network fails.
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I hope he’s hiding the fact that they’re launching the Motorola Droid up here.
I’m hoping / praying for that big unveil to take place on November 4th…
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I don’t think they have a huge amount to worry about. Most people who want an iPhone probably have one by now. And its not like Bell or Telus will be any more enticing since they will all offer it at the same price. In terms of service, I doubt the plans will be much different either.
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Yeah, but the new Bell/Telus network’s footprint it gonna put Rogers to shame pretty darn fast. Good luck Rogers…I think your days are numbered.
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I agree with Zak, Especially considering the location, I mean I live in the Greater Toronto Area, but we all know how bad Rogers service is in the martimes is. With this it MIGHT increase competition BUT this is Canada, and history repeats itself AND on that note, Rival Companies prices are pretty much identical anyways eliminating that need for competition, So we may or may not see prices go down, In fact prices on Bell Mobility have INCREASED within the past 6 months, So I too am curious about this, Im going to Fido to get an iPhone 3G tomorrow, Im glad I switched from Solo Mobile, Bell isnt that great of a company anyways, And TELUS, eh…. Its always just been….. There.. I really dont think they have been noticed as spectacluar in the past 5-6 years, besides with Bell Mobility picking up the Majority of the High end and High Demand consumer CDMA Handsets, TELUS has been left with the lower end, less in demand and so on, I do agree that the Student 35 Blackberry plan seems nice but, The selection isnt that great and to kick them when there already down, its the fact that their CDMA which makes it even more frustating for them since more and more people are switching to GSM, Well so far thats my take on this, Ive also seen similar posts on Youtube about this.
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J.Soul Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 11:14 am
“its the fact that their CDMA which makes it even more frustating for them since more and more people are switching to GSM”
This is very presumptuous – it may be how the GTA and surrounding areas operate, but Telus holds Western Canada (especially Alberta) in the palm of their hands. Bell has ALOT more visibility to Ontarian’s strictly because of the longevity they’ve had there, which is the same as Telus in the West. However, as with the Ontario there is next to no ROGERS coverage in the areas that people require it… which is mainly rural.
Every day people are jumping ship from Rogers to Telus & Bell… STRICTLY because of coverage.
Reminder – Telus and Bell are NOT rolling out a GSM network. It is an HSPA network ONLY…. your GSM phones will not work on the new network (at least at launch, for sure) and your Telus or Bell HSPA phone will NOT roam on GSM if you have no HSPA coverage. This may be a thorn in Telus and Bell’s sides.
The FACT is actually that Rogers’ HSPA network only covers about 43% of the Canadian population, where as Telus and Bell have over 90%. I’m not saying that it’s going to be perfect at launch, but having high speed coverage and capabilities in remote areas is going to be the key that smashes Rogers in Western Canada.
Rogers launching Droid isn’t going to save them. The majority of Canadians don’t give a damn about how cutting edge their devices are – they are most concerned about whether their current device actually does what it’s supposed to do.
Without coverage, the phones won’t do jack.
ps – LTE will be stronger on Telus when it launches in the future, strictly because of their footprint. Rogers has a lot of ground to make up, and the “everyone loves GSM” arguement isn’t standing up anymore.
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“I don’t think people should get confused: the idea that somebody announces that they have the technology of choice is very different from actually having a network that has the reliability and quality that we have”.
I think Mohamed should get out of downtown T.O. once in a while. Or he should read the Rogers forum on HoFo where his own customers talk openly about seeing the other guy’s networks with strong signals all over the place right across Canada where Rogers’ signal is weak or non-existent.
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midtoad Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
West of Calgary there has never been a Rogers signal in many of the dips as you head toward the foothills. Suddenly I´m seeing a new network there – Telus. Rogers had years to provide network coverage there, and didn´t. Telus is already providing coverage where Rogers never bothered to.
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I wouldn’t worry if I were Rogers. You can bet 70% of iPhone sales will be hardware upgrades for existing customers…not exactly driving in new business.
Not to mention the reliability of the new network!
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J.Soul Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 11:25 am
You don’t think people with an unlocked iPhone would rather jump over to Telus strictly because of the coverage?
Stop fooling yourself. The iPhone has been out since 2007, which means alot of iPhone users are going to have OPTIONS very soon.
Rogers charges too much for data services, and their coverage for the majority of Canada is balls. These two factors should have them a little more concerned… and have people asking A LOT more questions about their service.
Whether they do or not… who knows?
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I wouldn’t expect Nadir to say anything different. However we all know the reality of the situation: the Rogers HSPA network is small and not exceptional in any way.
Rogers is vulnerable to aggressive competition from Telus and Bell on many fronts. Smartphones, iphones, roaming revenue, customers that require international travel, early adopters, etc. Rogers has everything to lose, Bell and Telus have everything to gain.
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What else can they say publicly? Rogers people are probably worried like hell internally. Hopefully Rogers will respond to Bell and Telus with these 3 changes.
1. cheaper plans
2. cheaper, wider choice of devices
3. faster rollout of 4G network
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Okay, lets see, 30$ for unlimited data plan or 60$ for unlimited data?? maybe Telus’ new gsm network will be better than the poor GSM network Rogers has on the West coast.
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I like Rogers coverage in MY area but there is no way I would pay their current prices as they’re higher then every other carrier in Canada. Which is garbage when you think about because even the “low” prices are still way higher then most countries. WIND mobile will be getting my business.
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Nadir seems to be taking his lessons from Harper’s strategists; the ones who boasted that “it doesn’t have to be true, merely plausible”. In other words, you can lie to the people all you want as long as people fear you might not be lying, even though they know in their gut you are. Because Rogers always takes years to roll out new technology, Nadir needs to seed the fear that his competition also will take years. And hope enough buy his fiction.
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this is what comes to mind. Telus taking the place of verizon of course
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxUelVjjXjE
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toyandme Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
“this is what comes to mind. Telus taking the place of verizon of course
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxUelVjjXjE ”
That is pretty much it. Even in a city where Rogers is supposed to have 3G coverage, iPhone users keep looking for a wifi signal.
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I’d like to reiterate what j.soul said, “Telus and Bell are NOT rolling out a GSM network. It is an HSPA network ONLY…. your GSM phones will not work on the new network.” But a Rogers client can definitely use their HSPA iPhone and load a TELUS or Bell sim card on it and vice versa.
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J.Soul Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Exactly. Which is what I was alluding to in my other reply concerning current iPhone customers who are getting crappy reception on Rogers.
And even though you may not be able to have a back up roaming ability on Telus or Bell, their HSPA coverage is going to be considerably better than Rogers’.
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Rogers had a whole year to prepair for this,How have they done? Anser Almost NOTHING.Yes I said Almost NOTHING.No new coverage,Very small add on of HSPA,Most network coverage is 2G/Edge.Telus/Bell have spent billions up grading to HSPA,The only places not covered for know will be Sask/Manitoba.When these provinces are compleated I will switch to Telus from Rogers.(Canadas most unreliable network)
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I don’t think people should get confused: the idea that somebody announces that they have the technology of choice is very different from actually having a network that has the reliability and quality that we have”.
ooooooooooooooooooooh! I get it, its opposite day where “reliability and quality that we have” means god awful network that has dead zones all over the downtown ottawa core and stops working entirely 1km out of the main city!
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hahahaha, Rogers and reliability in the same sentence!!! I have been with Robbers for years as I prefer a sim card over cdma. Today alone I had 3 dropped calls on the Rogers network… and I only made 4 calls….
That all changes next week when I finally get to switch to Bell and use my work’s corporate plan and drop my phone bill by $17/month!
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Don’t get a phone on the new HSPA network!!!! SERIOUSLY wait till they fix all the problems. I’ve spent the last week fighting with Bell because the reception is HORRIBLE (also for some reason I can’t call some of my friends and they can’t figure out how to fix it. Nothing to do with my phone or theirs, it’s the network).
When I first got the phone the reception was fine but now with more people on the network it’s just getting worse and worse. I live in Halifax and driving in the middle of the city the reception cuts in and out. In my apartment the phone doesn’t work at all (I have to go outside!!!)
I spent around 3 hours on the phone with Bell in the last 2 days fighting with them only to hear them say the same thing over and over again.
One tech told me that this is a big problem they’re having which they didn’t notice when they were testing but now they see the system can’t handle all of these customers and they hope to get it fixed in the next couple of months. The guy had the nerve to tell me to call in every time I experience bad reception (which is every 2 minutes while driving).
I was speaking to a supervisor (who was very rude I should add) and she told me there is no way I can get out of my contract because service is not guaranteed to work everywhere and my service was cutting out because I was driving between towers (I’m driving in the middle of the city!!! It should work!)
She told me that I would have to pay all the fees and there was nothing they could do for me and it’s not their fault I’m unhappy with the service. I asked for a discounted rate until the system is working properly and NOTHING.
They should be sued for false advertising and breach of contract because there is no way they have 93% coverage and fewest dropped calls and they are in no way providing the service they promised.
Telus is using the same network so watch out for them too!
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