Canada???

[awhitehouse]

Hi,

Anyone know status of when/if any of either the SmartPhones or Pocket PC Phone Edition PDA will be available on Telus Mobility?

Right now Telus only has one model and it is not what I want.

I saw that Tek-n-Toys has the stuff I like but they are apparantely GSM and Telus is CDMA.

I am sick and tired of carrying around a PDA and phone and really need a sigle solution. Unfortunately my cell phone is from the company I work for and therefore cannot change the carrier.

Any ideas?

Alan

[Jeff Rutledge]

Unfortunately, you've got a couple things working against you. First, there is a definite lack of CDMA devices period. Some are starting to emerge, but GSM seems to be the vendor preference by quite a wide margin.

Secondly, Canada is not what you'd call an early adopter of these technologies. Rogers just started carrying the SX-56 (aka XDA) a few months ago. I think it was in fact only about 2-3 months before the XDAII hit Europe.

At least with Rogers' GSM plan, you can get unlocked devices and use them. To my knowledge, there's no way to get a CDMA device to work in Canada other than the Thera (that's the one you're referring to I believe).

[arnage2]

with cdma you can get a treo 600. (its not wm smartphone, or wm pocket pc, but its still good.)

[Janak Parekh]

with cdma you can get a treo 600. (its not wm smartphone, or wm pocket pc, but its still good.)
Only with Sprint in the US, definitely not in Canada... and that is even if the original poster wanted a Palm.

--janak

[KenClunk]

Verizon is CDMA I do not know if they have service up there but:

Samsung SPH-i700:http://www.verizonwireless.com/images_b2c/phones/med/sam_i700.jpg

Samsung SCH-i600:http://www.verizonwireless.com/images_b2c/phones/med/sam_i600.jpg

Check out there site : Here (http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/index.jsp).

[Janak Parekh]

Verizon is CDMA I do not know if they have service up there
They do not. Besides, he doesn't want the i700 -- Telus already sells it. ;) Although, Alan, I'd be curious to hear why you don't want the i700. It's not a speedy device, but it's certainly useable.

--janak

[awhitehouse]

I deed a more up-to-date device and one ideally with a SD card slot in it. I also like the idea of some of the devices that have the built in thumb keyboard on it. Size is not my real concern, just reducing the number of devices I need to carry.

The other think I heard about the model that Telus carries is that you must use the earbud/headphone to use the phone and can't use it like a normal phone. That turned me off. As well, our Telus rep said that the people using that model were not overly happy with it.

Alan

[Janak Parekh]

I deed a more up-to-date device and one ideally with a SD card slot in it. I also like the idea of some of the devices that have the built in thumb keyboard on it. Size is not my real concern, just reducing the number of devices I need to carry.
The i700 has an SD slot. No thumb keyboard, though.

The other think I heard about the model that Telus carries is that you must use the earbud/headphone to use the phone and can't use it like a normal phone. That turned me off. As well, our Telus rep said that the people using that model were not overly happy with it.
They're probably unhappy because Telus has no clue. The i700 can definitely be held up to your ear.

You might want to check out my (very long) i700 review here (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,20748). I can't guarantee Telus's service works the same, but I believe the hardware is identical. My biggest criticisms of the device would be that it's still running PPCPE 2002, it has a relatively slow processor, and no Bluetooth. But other than that, it's very functional.

--janak

[awhitehouse]

PPC 2002 is a problem. One of the apps I need to run on it is only for 2003.

[Janak Parekh]

PPC 2002 is a problem. One of the apps I need to run on it is only for 2003.
Ah. You'll have to wait then. :( A 2003 update for the i700 is rumored to be in the works, but I haven't seen any confirmations of when it'd be available.

--janak

[jproudfo]

It's too bad that the device you need has to be on Telus's network.

If you just wanted CDMA in Canada, you could always look at the Audiovox PPC 5050 on Bell Mobility. It's been available for a couple of weeks and has some nice specs, including WM 2003.

I've had the device for a few days and it's fantastic!

Have a look at this URL:
http://www.bell.ca/shop/application/commercewf?origin=browse_cellphone.jsp&event=link(productDetail)&wlcs_catalog_item_sku=60956

Unfortunately, you won't be able to take this device to Telus, either. For some reason, Telus won't activate phones from another CDMA carrier. In most cases, Bell doesn't seem to have a problem doing this. I know a few people who have brought foreign CDMA phones to Bell and have successfully activated them.

The i700 or the Thera are your only real options for Telus. Since the i700 was only launched in the last couple of months, I doubt they will be bringing out another PPCPE device in the near future. Telus is also really slow when it comes to bringing these products to market, so don't be surprised if, when the WM 2003 upgrade is released by Samsung, it takes a long time before it is officially supported by Telus.