Fido's Fast Wireless Internet Access Goes International

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.microcell.ca/EN/04/index.asp?id=04&sid=01&contentID=2413' target='_blank'>http://www.microcell.ca/EN/04/index...&contentID=2413</a><br /><br /></div>"Microcell Solutions is pleased to announce the launch of international GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) roaming for Fido® customers who want to access fast mobile Internet services while travelling abroad. With a GPRS world phone, travellers can now use data services to send and receive e-mail messages, check flight departures on-line, follow the latest news back home and download games in four important overseas destinations. <br /> <br />“We have launched GPRS roaming with seven GSM operators covering four countries, but this is just the beginning,” said Alain Rhéaume, President and Chief Operating Officer of Microcell Solutions. “Customers can expect to see considerable growth in the number of GPRS roaming partners overseas in the coming year, and data roaming services will evolve in a manner similar to voice services.”<br /><br />Cool - this means I might have GPRS the next time I leave North America. I love my data services!

[theon]

I just got my GPRS roaming the other day. Planning to go do a bit of travelling and figured I'd use to clear some mail, pull up maps etc. Then I did some calculation of the charges... 8O

SGD30 for 1MB?!?!? Time to get a Bluetooth modem I think...

[rubberdemon]

While very cool that this is now possible, I wonder too at the cost. 4c per kb means that a regular browsing/email session of 300-400kb (my usual for ten or fifteen minutes online) will cost you $12 to $16! Web cafes are ubiquitous in much of the world, and far cheaper. I can see this working for the odd emergency email, or if a company is paying, but for us regular folks, I dunno.

When I was visiting Italy a year or so ago, I signed up for an Ipass account, which gave me 56K modem dialup numbers in most towns and cities for about $6 per hour.

Still, kudos for Fido for doing it! They're consistently innovative and competitive for GPRS and voice pricing; it's just too bad their coverage is limited the moment you leave an urban area - here on Vancouver island I'm now testing out Rogers/AT&T now as Fido's GPRS coverage only works close to the centres of Nanaimo and Victoria.

[Jason Dunn]

it's just too bad their coverage is limited the moment you leave an urban area

Yeah, that's the one down-side. Although I was pleased that I seemed to have GPRS coverage all the way from Calgary to Edmonton and back again. :-)

[ctmagnus]

it's just too bad their coverage is limited the moment you leave an urban area

Yeah, that's the one down-side. Although I was pleased that I seemed to have GPRS coverage all the way from Calgary to Edmonton and back again. :-)

AB has High river to Ft Saskatchewan and a wee bit around Banff (long link (http://www.fido.ca/portal/en/packages/canadaCover.shtml#600x500)). This link actually has all of Fido's coverage listed but you have to scroll down a bit to get to the coverage areas.

[bbarker]

What is Fido?

[Jason Dunn]

What is Fido?

Fido is a mobile carrier in Canada: www.fido.ca. I have my GPRS + phone coverage with them, and it rocks!

[bbarker]

I remember "Fido" as a BBS engine from the old dial-up bulletine board days.

[sweetpete]

This is great news for Canadian business travellers. As it is, they are the only Canadian carrier that includes unlimited wireless data roaming in the US. Rogers, Telus and Bell have nothing that compares when using their US partners!
I was holding off moving our sales team to Fido since we do a lot of business in CA and WA and that wasn't covered for data roaming with T-Mobile. The press release says they now have that covered with Cingular, but it neglects to mention if it is included for the $50/month unlimited package.
It sounds like the UK, HK, Germany and Switzerland roaming is only per KB though I'm going to place a call to find out this week.
I hope that by the time the 2010 Olympics comes to Vancouver/Whistler that we'll have the Vancouver to Whistler corridor finally covered :lol: Their Canadian coverage in outside urban areas leaves a little to be desired, but they have the best voice quality out of all carriers.