The big three (Rogers, Bell, Telus) have announced they will be bringing the BlackBerry Bold 9700 to Canada.
The 9700 features a 2.44″ screen, 3.2 MP camera, wifi, and GPS. In addition to the previous mentioned features, the 9700 replaces the roller ball with a track pad.
The Bold 2 will be in the starting lineup for Bell and Telus’ new HSPA network, which should be ready for use in November. The 9700 should be up for sale in November in around the $300 price mark on a 3 year term with data.
Research in Motion (RIM), the makers of the BlackBerry, and Rogers Wireless are pleased to announce the launching of the BlackBerry 8520 Curve. The all new BlackBerry Curve features:
•Trackpad–The first Blackberry with an optical trackpad, the Curve 8520 makes navigation easy
•Dedicated external media keys -access your multimedia easily and instantly
•Social Networking –If you prefer Facebook®, Flickr, Twitter or love them all, the Curve 8520 will keep you connected to all your social networks
•2.0 MP camera with video capture
•Large, Colorful Screen –Your life on-the-go –the way it was meant to be seen
•Out of the Box Mac Computer Support –Make the Mac connection
•Built-in Wi-Fi(Supports TalkSpot™)
•World Phone –Quad Band EDGE with Stereo Bluetooth™
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is launching at the following price points:
3 year: $99.99 (voice and data)
3 year: $349.99
2 year: $399.99
1 year: $399.99
no term: $449.99
If you’re a Rogers voice only customer and it’s been more than 12 months since you activated/last upgraded to a new phone then you’re eligible to upgrade again. Please note that this will extend your contract to 3 years, basically you’d be starting a new contract.
While it’s a nice offer remember that there’s new competition around the corner in Wind Mobile, DAVE and Public Mobile.
Our source at Rogers’ has forwarded us the internal memo regarding Rogers’ new GRRF (Government Regulatory Recovery Fee), so here are the official details regarding the new fee.
The fee is charged to “cover costs associated with standard operations, maintenance, and network upgrades”.
New activations and account migrations onto new plans will be SAF and 9-1-1 fee free.
These new plans will be launching October 5, 2009.
Like the System Access Fee and 9-1-1 Fee the Government Regulatory Recovery Fee will be charged on a per line, not per account basis.
Rogers is not required by the Canadian Government or any regulatory body to charge this fee.
Money collected by the GRRF will be put towards recovering the costs associated with:
9-1-1 fees
spectrum acquisition
licensing charges
help subsidize telephone service in rural/remote areas
The rate of the GRRF depends on two factors: the province where you account originates from and what service you have with Rogers.
Province
Voice Plans or voice & Data Combo Plans
Mobile Hi-Speed Data Plans (For Access Cards or Rocket Sticks)
Starting Oct 5th new Rogers customers along with existing ones who migrate to new billing plans will get call forwarding, call manager and WhoCalled included with thier plans.
Instead of a $6.95 SAF customers will now see something called ‘Government Regulatory Recovery Fee’ . It varies based on the government fees where customers live. Apparently this isn’t really a new fee – Rogers is saying they’re just being more transparent about it now.
Rogers is saying that your total bill will remain about the same after these changes.
Rogers has just announced that their 21Mbps HSPA+ network is now live in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. There will be a USB modem which supports this speed that you can pre-order for as low as $75.
The 21Mbps stick the ZTE 668, a triband HSPA (850/1900/2100Mhz) USB modem that can do 21.6Mbps down 5.76Mbps up. It has a retractable USB connector and a micro SDHC card slot. You have to remove the SIM card slot cover to access the SDHC card slot.
At 21Mbps it would take just under 40 minutes to go through Rogers 6GB data plan. No word on whether there will be any special data plans for the 21Mbps USB modem.
I’m at the launch right now and am observing speeds of around 16Mbps down and 2.8Mbps up from speedtest.net – nice. Keep in mind these modems aren’t widely available so it remains to be seen what speed will be like later.
The netbook market has been pretty saturated for for sometime now. Prices have come down to the point that you can pick some up for around $200 if not less. So I was surprised when Nokia toss their hat into the crowded netbook market. Still, their entry has some interesting specs (which may or may not be interesting depending on how long it takes Nokia to ship the product):
one piece aluminum body – nice
Atom 1.6Ghz Z530 processor -most netbooks ship with either a 1.6Ghz N270, 1.66Ghz N280 or 1.3Ghz Z520
1GB 533Mhz DDR2 RAM – status quo, I wonder if you can easily upgrade this to 2GB
120GB, 1.8″ 4200RPM hard drive – most ship with a 5400RPM hard drive or slow SSD. A 4200RPM hard drive will kill the performance and make the Booklet 3G feel much slower than it’s piers. The 4200RPM hard drive is a real deal breaker, I’d skip this one till Nokia puts something faster in.
10.1″ 1280×720 display – Some may find 1280×720 on a 10″ display to be too small but if you can handle it, it’s a good thing.
HDMI output – neat
1.3 megapixel camera – status quo
HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth – built in 3G is always a nice thing, it’s optional if you don’t want it.
264x195x19.9mm, 1.25kg – nice
16 cell LiIon battery good for up to 12hrs – 16 cells, damn! Still, you’re going to need all that battery life because you’ll be waiting forever for the 4200rpm hard drive.
Looks like Nokia is getting more creative with their model name nomenclature.
To me the most interesting phone here is the X6. It’s a S60 touchscreen device but it has a capacitive touch screen. It will be interesting to see if that makes a big difference over other S60 resistive touch screen devices like the 5800XM and N97. Other specs: 3.2″ 640×360 display, Triband HSDPA (850/900/2100 or 900/1900/2100), WiFi, 434Mhz processor (same as the N97) and 5 megapixel camera with Zeiss lens. It uses the Nokia barrel port to charge.
The n97 mini is very similar to the regular N97 except the mini is slightly smaller (113 x 52.5 x 14.2mm vs 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9mm, that’s 75cc vs 88cc) and comes with less storage (8GB instead of 32GB). It still has a resistive touchscreen.
The X3 is a slider phone running S40: 3 megapixel camera, no HSDPA.
Rogers and Fido have launched three new SMS bundles which are perfect for your travels around the world.
$10: 20 text messages ($0.50/message overage)
$20: 50 text messages ($0.40/message overage)
$35: 100 text messages ($0.35/message overage)
The travel packs for good for messaging anywhere outside of Canada. The add-ons will not be prorated so they do not need to be added on your plan’s anniversary date. All roaming SMS packs will expire after 30 days and will need to be manually re-added.
Rogers Wireless is changing the eligibility of its HUP program.
Effective August 21, 2009, a minimum tenure of 24 months since initial activation or last upgrade will be required before a customer is eligible to participate in the hardware upgrade program. This change aligns all upgrades (voice, voice to data and data to data) with the current data to data HUP policy.
According to the internal bulletin, Rogers is implementing the change to the HUP for two reasons.
Rogers Wireless heavily invests in providing the latest data devices at affordable prices to our data customers. This update to the Hardware Upgrade Program is designed to offer a consistent upgrade eligibility to an outstanding selection of the most advanced devices for the best value.
In addition to the outstanding selection of available devices, there has also been improved level of quality and technology that has gone into the line-up over the past years allowing a longer hardware lifespan.
I always love reading companies internal documentations as there is always a few sentences that give you a good chuckle. Take this one from the Rogers’ bulletin for example.
This change also reinforces the importance of explaining to customers that HUP eligibility and quoted hardware/plan pricing are subject to change without notice and cannot be guaranteed beyond the time of quotation.
To me that paragraph means that Rogers’ is implementing the new HUP policy to remind consumers who is in charge. The change has nothing to do with devices costing more or the “longer hardware lifespan” it is just another way Rogers can make an easy buck.
As mentioned earlier in the post, the updated HUP upgrade policy is effective August 21st and will only apply to regular consumers, business accounts will not be affected. I recommend if you are considering upgrading you current Rogers’ device you do so before August 21st because even though you may have been eligible for an upgrade you may no longer be able to under the new policy.
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