[Scape]

That's the problem with analog.... there is no future in it. CDMA2000 will replace it (hopefully) but to give some perspective CDMA is only hot in countries like the US and in Korea the rest of the world ditched CDMA for GSM back in the 1990's.

So new towers are like new oil refineries, yes there is a need but the time in which they can turn a profit is painfully short so there is no real push for development.

[newfette]

preaching to the choir my friend.. i actually sell this crap

[neopundit]

newfette newfette:

newfoundland is still a big province though so everyone else just doesn't deserve the same technology?

The debate isn't about the cellular coverage, it's about the service costs, which are way, WAY higher than the USA. The fact that Canadian companies do not have coverage that extends to every little town, coast-to-coast is argument for cheaper services. If they had exceptional service everywhere, maybe they'd have an excuse for being so fucking expensive.

The problem is that the companies refuse to compete with each other. It's smart, I guess, because each and everyone gets to fleece the consumer. They are at no risk of having people jump ship if a cheaper provider comes along because nearly everyone is locked in a contract, let alone the unfeasability of a cellular startup coming out of nowhere.

I've witnessed this first hand recently. Having just exited my second cell phone contract of 3 years (Fido) I decided I was going to shop around. I checked out Telus, Bell and Rogers. Nobody was willing to step up to get my business and all plans were essentially the same. I ended up staying with Fido because I had been with them so long (5 years) that I had elements to my plan that were no longer available. Yeah, that's right. There were options in my plan that were better than what they could offer me today. How's that for progress?

[neopundit]

You can get wireless internet in Rwanda for $65 CDN a month.

I can't even find a Canadian provider.

[PluggyRug]

neopundit neopundit:

You can get wireless internet in Rwanda for $65 CDN a month.

I can't even find a Canadian provider.

Is This in your area yet?

[Scape]

That's the way they play down south too. I worked for AT&T before and during the great merger with cingular. Simply put the company's are cobbled together from older companies that were gobbled up and their service contracts are grandfathered in. In the Mississippi area they had one company that had unlimited inbound calls that were costing AT&T a fortune because they had no local network and it depended upon all roaming agreements with other providers that were charging a fortune. We can see the price point on every contract and how much we were making off of the customer and these guys were getting dick all to reup because their profit point was practically nothing so after 3 years they had barely covered for the cost of service let alone the offer for a new phone.

Up north isn't three big companies but dozens of markets within markets and they all have roaming agreements as long as they share the same network. They make offerers based on the market conditions at that time which tend to flux. Retailers will give great deals for new customers that walk in off the street to get the commissions and thats how come you'll end up with a contract that is superior to one currently offered and you will also feel jyped because new customers may be getting better offers than what you have right now. That's how the big companies get you to get rid of your old plans they don't want to support anymore.

[neopundit]

PluggyRug PluggyRug:

neopundit neopundit:

You can get wireless internet in Rwanda for $65 CDN a month.

I can't even find a Canadian provider.

Is This in your area yet?

Nice catch. That's what I was looking for. Funny that there doesn't seem to be clear access to that information from Bell.ca.

Rogers has rolled out their "Portable Internet", which requires you to carry around a modem and AC adapter to get wireless access. That's pretty stupid.