Telus Now Offering the Q to the Canadians

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.telusmobility.com/on/pcs/handset_motorola_q.shtml

Well here's something I wasn't expecting to see until the end of the year: Canadian CDMA carrier Telus offering the Motorola Q, mere weeks after Verizon officially launched it. It would seem that the exclusivity that Verizon negotiated with Motorola was only valid inside US borders. The pricing is harsh though: Verizon is selling this for $199 USD with a two-year contract; Telus wants $499 CND ($459 USD) for the same period. It's $599 CND without a contract, and only goes down to $249 on a three year contract. So if you want the Q, you have to be willing to pay the price.

Mike Temporale spoke to a Telus representative today in Toronto, and picked up a few bits of info: Telus is going to be offering their own hosted Exchange solution soon, and any data transfer to/from their Exchange server will not count towards the total data used on a plan. That's very interesting news, because the vast majority of data bits racked up on pay-by-the-MB plans are likely from checking email. I'm excited to see Telus offering the Q, but once again, they manage to make it an expensive step.

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.telusmobility.com/on/pcs/handset_motorola_q.shtml

Well here's something I wasn't expecting to see until the end of the year: Canadian CDMA carrier Telus offering the Motorola Q, mere weeks after Verizon officially launched it. It would seem that the exclusivity that Verizon negotiated with Motorola was only valid inside US borders. The pricing is harsh though: Verizon is selling this for $199 USD with a two-year contract; Telus wants $499 CND ($459 USD) for the same period. It's $599 CND without a contract, and only goes down to $249 on a three year contract. So if you want the Q, you have to be willing to pay the price.

Mike Temporale spoke to a Telus representative today in Toronto, and picked up a few bits of info: Telus is going to be offering their own hosted Exchange solution soon, and any data transfer to/from their Exchange server will not count towards the total data used on a plan. That's very interesting news, because the vast majority of data bits racked up on pay-by-the-MB plans are likely from checking email. I'm excited to see Telus offering the Q, but once again, they manage to make it an expensive step.

[Jason Dunn]

Got this anonymous email in my inbox today:

"Jason: your recent information on the Q is incorrect. TELUS does offer a hosted exchange service. Data used however, is not free and the source of the data (like a hosted solution) is not considered. To access any email or any other data you must have a data plan on your device. Data coming from a hosted telus solution will be counted like any other data that passes through the network."

No name, no idea if this is accurate or not, or why what Mike was told today would be wrong, but there you have it...

[ctmagnus]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Maybe Telus(/Bell)'s version should be called "The QA".

[Mike Temporale]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Got this anonymous email in my inbox today:

"Jason: your recent information on the Q is incorrect. TELUS does offer a hosted exchange service. Data used however, is not free and the source of the data (like a hosted solution) is not considered. To access any email or any other data you must have a data plan on your device. Data coming from a hosted telus solution will be counted like any other data that passes through the network."

No name, no idea if this is accurate or not, or why what Mike was told today would be wrong, but there you have it...

Interesting. Although I was told that they don't have an Exchange server yet. It's about 2 months out. But it is coming. Perhaps the release of the server will see a change in the data plans?

I've done some pricing and it looks like it would cost me $50 more a month to move to Telus. If that wasn't enough, it would mean I have less data available to me. So, I can't say that this is very appealing right now.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by Mike Temporale

I've done some pricing and it looks like it would cost me $50 more a month to move to Telus.

Telus is smoking crack with all of their pricing, especially on the data plan site. They just have no concept of reality. :roll:

[Mike Temporale]

The Telus rep just called me. Their in stock. 8O He says they got a big shipment in and they expect to move a fair amount of it over the next couple days.