11-17-2007, 06:45 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Bell Canada Unveils HTC Touch...and $7 Flat-Rate Data Plan?!
"Seems the rumor we heard last week about Bell's HTC Touch launch and unlimited surfin' and mail for $7 are true. Judging by the loveliness pictured above, we'll go out on a limb to say that today's HTC Touch launch by Bell Canada is most definitely gonna start a frenzy up north. Though our prices last week were a bit wonky, it appears the Touch will only set you back $150 on a 3 year stint, or $400 off contract and not the $250 and $450 we'd quoted. Nice handset only made better by a great price and mind boggling -- at least, in Canada -- wireless web deal. Hop on over to Bell's site to enjoy the finer details."
$7 for flat rate data on a Windows Mobile smartphone...in Canada? Has hell frozen over? I'm not going to switch to a CDMA carrier (I dislike the device lock-in) any time soon, but I applaud Bell Canada for unveiling a data rate plan that will undoubtedly put massive pressure on Telus and Rogers/Fido to stop their anti-consumer collusion and start to compete on price. Bring it on!
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11-17-2007, 05:36 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 44
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Well this looks like my chance to ditch Telus mobility. 
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11-17-2007, 06:57 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 6
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I want to say call me back when you can get the Bell 6800 or other similarly high-end device with this kind of plan, but anything that'll start pulling down data prices in Canada is a Good Thing. Hopefully Rogers will be soon to follow suit for those of us stuck with GSM.
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11-17-2007, 11:08 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 378
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Whether it be CDMA or Touch-only, this is surely a break-through in terms of data pricing in Canada. Hopefully this is a positive sign for the future. I guess this also cancels out any argument that so many people have been using that the U.S. has a denser population therefore they can afford cheaper data plans whereas we cannot. Obviously, we can - it's just collusion that's driving the prices up, nothing to do with population at all.
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11-18-2007, 05:25 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
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Wow. I've just this week joined the somewhat confusing but certainly interesting world of the Pocket PC phone; got a slightly used WM6 Atom. Just getting the finishing touches on my setup now... but one thing I did was to delete several references to GPRS from the registry. The darn thing just kept insisting on trying to connect to GPRS service if I forgot to toggle on Wi-Fi, and once I think it succeeded in connecting to Rogers thanks to the stupid insistence on connection in Messaging. So I had to do something. No way am I going to get stuck with a huge accidental bill. On researching it a bit further, I found that there are at least utilities which allow toggling GPRS availability, to prevent just this sort of nonsense.
But now that Bell has got the fair price ball rolling, it may not be too many months (or years?) before Rogers notices and follows along. That'd be slick, and well worth a hard reset and fresh setup - you see, I didn't bother backing up those deleted registry values... Not that I really need a cellphone data plan, but hey, it'd be handy sometimes.
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11-18-2007, 04:26 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 974
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I wonder if verizon would allow me to run this phone on their network? LOL
Congrats for Bell Canada and that great flat rate - :mrgreen:
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11-18-2007, 08:22 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,183
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by possmann
I wonder if verizon would allow me to run this phone on their network? LOL
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ROTFLMAO - yeah if that happens, you know hell really has frozen over!
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11-19-2007, 07:50 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 116
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WHAT!?
Wait a minute.
I have a Touch and love it.
Unlocked GSM on Rogers.
I am glad for the great success of the HTC Touch (over 1,000,000 sold in Europe within 5 months!)
I have heard that the Bell variant is , how shall I say, "differently abled",
namely, NO WiFi - hence el cheapo data pricing... can anyone here confirm?
Noel
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11-19-2007, 11:20 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 121
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Well, I just called Bell and they told me it is not in fact unlimited, only WAP is unlimited. So you wouldn't be able to send unlimited emails, browse in IE or download RSS feeds from like SPB Insight... the bell rep then asked me if I was interested in 1GB for unrestrictive for $100, but even Rogers offers 1GB for 65$
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11-20-2007, 01:08 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 378
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by extravagant
Well, I just called Bell and they told me it is not in fact unlimited, only WAP is unlimited. So you wouldn't be able to send unlimited emails, browse in IE or download RSS feeds from like SPB Insight... the bell rep then asked me if I was interested in 1GB for unrestrictive for $100, but even Rogers offers 1GB for 65$
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Hmm...I would like some additional confirmation on this. Maybe hop on over to HowardForums and see what those people say or call in again. Frankly, I and many others can tell you the amount of incorrect information given by CSRs. Call 10 CSRs and you will get 7 different answers - it's seriously this bad. For example, I was told that my $10/10mb Rogers data plan was only good for WAP sites only but it has been confirmed by myself and many others that "data is data" and the service works for everything. Let's hope Bell follows the same rule.
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