[kwlug-disc] telus now has motorola droid lookalike "milestone"

[Chris Irwin]

On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 09:55,  <shane.msg at gmail.com> wrote:
> Near as I can tell from talking to them is that the newer phones are still using the CFMA as backup but will also be using HSPA(High Speed Packet Access) that uses a SIM card.

I'll prefix this by saying that I spent a few hours reading on various
sites, but I am by no means a cellphone guru. I may be incorrect.

Bell and Telus have not rolled out GSM, but only HSPA. The issue being
that you can (in theory) take a "3G" HSPA phone like the iPhone, plug
in a Telus or Bell SIM card, and have data and voice connectivity
(assuming your device supports the frequencies they are using).

You can't take use just any GSM phone as they didn't implement the
legacy GSM protocol (2G? Is that what it's called?). There is also no
fallback to older protocols, which may be desirable for battery life
(I believe HSPA uses more power).

That said, it's starting to look like you will finally be able to buy
a single phone and take your pick of any three non-competing
telecommunication conglomerates!

-- 
Chris Irwin
<chris at chrisirwin.ca>