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Rogers to Be Exclusive Apple iPhone Provider in Canada

Slimy   on 25 January 2007 - 21:02 · 25 comments & 8375 views

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A Rogers Wireless customers notice e-mail was sent out this week which emphasized that Rogers will be the exclusive carrier of Apple's iPhone in Canada. Rogers is the only carrier in Canada that offers GSM service other than Fido, which Rogers bought two years ago. Fido will, however, not offer the iPhone. The email sent out to customers indicated that dates and pricing have not been determined yet.

Here’s a summary of important points from the original Rogers e-mail:
  • The iPhone will first be introduced in North America
  • Cingular is the only wireless carrier to launch the iPhone in the United States
  • Rogers is actively working with Apple to launch the iPhone in Canada as soon as possible and will be the exclusive provider of the iPhone in Canada
  • Apple is planning to introduce the iPhone in Europe (Q4 2007) and in Asia (2008 )
  • Launch date and pricing for Canada are not yet available
News source: DailyTech

Post a comment · Send to friend Comments · There are 25 additional comments
#1 FireWire on 25 Jan 2007 - 21:05
Cool.

I currently have the BlackBerry Pearl that is exclusive to Rogers and everything is working fine!
(1 reply) #2 ripgut on 25 Jan 2007 - 21:08
Is Sprint going to launch this phone as well?
#2.1 zivan56 on 25 Jan 2007 - 21:56
No. Sprint is not a GSM provider. Rogers is the only Canada wide GSM provider in Canada (there is one that covers a few small cities up north, and Fido does not have its own network anymore-so they don't count), and therefore they are the only people who Apple can license the phone to.
This is just sad, as 3rd world countries have more GSM providers than us.
(2 replies) #3 drygnfyre on 25 Jan 2007 - 21:08
This is no surprise at all. Isn't Rogers just the Canadian version of Cingular? Everytime I visit Canada, my Cingular service automatically changes to Rogers.
#3.1 zivan56 on 25 Jan 2007 - 21:59
Kind of, but Rogers has no competition in the GSM arena and is free to do whatever they want.
#3.2 manduk20 on 19 Apr 2007 - 08:08
No Cingular and Rogers are seperate company's that use the same Global standard GSM and are Roaming partners so that you can literaly travel the world with you home mobile phone
(1 reply) #4 Achal on 25 Jan 2007 - 21:10
wow, 2008 in asia, it will so sooo outdated
#4.1 KeR on 25 Jan 2007 - 21:16
by that time the iPhone should already be in the 2nd Gen.
(6 replies) #5 Brodel on 25 Jan 2007 - 21:10
Slightly unrelated, but they aren't releasing in Asia until 2008 and Europe in Q4 2007... isn't that almost backwards to the way mobile technology advances and is accepted by the markets?
#5.1 w1r3d on 25 Jan 2007 - 21:22
Quote - (Brodel said @ #5)
Slightly unrelated, but they aren't releasing in Asia until 2008 and Europe in Q4 2007... isn't that almost backwards to the way mobile technology advances and is accepted by the markets?


they are doing this because in Europe and Asia this might not be a big hit like it will be in the US because Asia and Europe have technology released more often than the US because in the US everything has to pass lots of tests and a lot of paperwork has to be done for new technology, the iphone has to come to the US market first because if they take any longer to release it other phones like the Prada LG are going to be release and since the iphone is not that "new" having in mind that it doesn’t support the latest technologies like "3G" it might be obsolete before it even gets released....
#5.2 Brodel on 25 Jan 2007 - 21:30
Quote - (w1r3d said @ #5.1)
they are doing this because in Europe and Asia this might not be a big hit like it will be in the US because Asia and Europe have technology released more often than the US because in the US everything has to pass lots of tests and a lot of paperwork has to be done for new technology, the iphone has to come to the US market first because if they take any longer to release it other phones like the Prada LG are going to be release and since the iphone is not that "new" having in mind that it doesn’t support the latest technologies like "3G" it might be obsolete before it even gets released....


You'd think it would make more sense to just release worldwide at the same time in that case, unless they are keeping the option open to not even release it at all outside of N.America...
#5.3 w1r3d on 25 Jan 2007 - 21:39
Quote - (Brodel said @ #5.2)
Quote - (w1r3d said @ #5.1)
they are doing this because in Europe and Asia this might not be a big hit like it will be in the US because Asia and Europe have technology released more often than the US because in the US everything has to pass lots of tests and a lot of paperwork has to be done for new technology, the iphone has to come to the US market first because if they take any longer to release it other phones like the Prada LG are going to be release and since the iphone is not that "new" having in mind that it doesn’t support the latest technologies like "3G" it might be obsolete before it even gets released....


You'd think it would make more sense to just release worldwide at the same time in that case, unless they are keeping the option open to not even release it at all outside of N.America...


doing that would take more time... time to produce more phones and to close contracts with the different service providers in the different countries delaying the release date worldwide and that takes you back to the point that it could be obsolete before it even gets released...
#5.4 Brodel on 25 Jan 2007 - 22:15
Quote - (w1r3d said @ #5.3)
doing that would take more time... time to produce more phones and to close contracts with the different service providers in the different countries delaying the release date worldwide and that takes you back to the point that it could be obsolete before it even gets released...


good point.
#5.5 dagamer34 on 25 Jan 2007 - 22:19
The iPhone isn't 3G yet, at which point, it makes little sense to release it in an area that has 40-50% 3G phone attachment rate. Over there, while Apple might be cool, Samsung and LG rule with an iron fist.
#5.6 XerXis on 25 Jan 2007 - 23:29
Quote - (dagamer34 said @ #5.5)
The iPhone isn't 3G yet, at which point, it makes little sense to release it in an area that has 40-50% 3G phone attachment rate. Over there, while Apple might be cool, Samsung and LG rule with an iron fist.


ermm, nokia rules in the eu with 28 procent market share ;-)
#6 FireWire on 25 Jan 2007 - 21:20
Well, isn't Apple an American product? It's true though that the delayed releases in Asia and Europe will reverse the global mobile technology market...

Where is this phone manufactured?
#7 vetPink Floyd on 25 Jan 2007 - 21:28
talk about bad news
my company is being provided by Bell
(1 reply) #8 Xero on 25 Jan 2007 - 22:35
Bad for me too, as I use Telus, but I figured this was going to happen, so I guess I will switch, isn't Rogers owned by AT&T anyways?
#8.1 thundros on 26 Jan 2007 - 04:13
No, Rogers is a fully Canadian company. Before Rogers Wireless was called Rogers AT&T. Rogers (the parent company) bought out, a few years back, what shares AT&T had in the joint wireless venture and went solo.
#9 teejaydm on 25 Jan 2007 - 23:19
Damn you Rogers, share the wealth (to Fido).
(1 reply) #10 koppit on 26 Jan 2007 - 00:33
Wait, fido uses the same cards as rogers, isn't it technically possible to just take out your sim card and put it into the iphone if it supports rogers' sim cards?
#10.1 teejaydm on 26 Jan 2007 - 01:03
unfortunately not, they just use the same network. A phone locked in Fido will not work on Rogers and vice versa.
#11 +chconline on 26 Jan 2007 - 00:37
Rogers ftw, I love their monopoly!

(My phone is with rogers)
#12 krupini on 26 Jan 2007 - 00:39
Me thinks the only reason why iPhone needs exclusive partners is because of visual voice mail. So if u go with any other provider u will loose that feature. It is a GSM phone afterall, and like any other GSM phone it should work with any GSM carrier. Even if apple figures out a way to lock the phone, there will be mad cracks for it before you could even say apple. It runs OS X after all, full blown, making writing cracks even easier. I dont' have to write a "mobile" feature-reduced crack, I can write a desktop grade crack
#13 LitoAlbo on 27 Jan 2007 - 12:02
Why Rogers? they are a rip off...... customer service sucks!!

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