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This news comes on the heels of some of the larger Mobile carriers recently launching their GSM (most 3.5G) networks.

Before very recently there was only one company in the entire country that utilized GSM and that was Rogers. Every other company was CDMA. There were a few other company names that used GSM, but they simply bought/rented bandwidth off of Rogers towers. The largest of which was Fido, however they were eventually bought up by Rogers.

This sounds like a good thing to me and I hope it goes through. It probably wont because Telco's here have a lot of power just like they do in the USA.

My provider is set to launch their GSM network in a few weeks and I'm pretty excited.

AT&T has always had overpriced data plans, and the iPhone plan is no exception ($20/month for unlimited).

I've been looking at getting a new cell phone because I'm coming up on the end of my three-year contract with The Devil. I was looking at getting a smartphone with wifi built in so that I could use skype whenever I was near a hotspot. Asides from the fact that nearly all the good smartphones are GSM ( I want a CDMA phone because that's what the good service provider in my area uses ), here in Canada I can't sign up for a Skype-In number. We've got Skype-Out, just no Skype-In. I also checked out Gizmo, and they have numbers setup for Gizmo-In ( or whatever they call it ). But they only have four or five area codes, and those are all in the Toronto area ( and I live in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia ).

Damn.

Living in Canada as well, why worry about Telus being the telco provider? You have a few other options here... 1. Rogers http://www.rogers.ca/ 2. Vonage http://www.vonage.ca/ 3. Shaw Digital Phone http://www.shaw.ca/en-ca/ProductsServices/DigitalP hone/ Good luck.

Shaw and Rogers are the two major cable providers in Canada.

Some people think that just because they are given the blank check (no caps set) they should be able to take as much as they wanted. .... Take as much as you want, but when other people can't get their fair share, you're taking too much.

You should. If a product or service is advertised or sold as "unlimited," then it should be unlimited. Telcos aren't advertising usage limits, in fact, they are usually advertising "no limits... unlimited." That means "no limits... unlimited," not "your limit is 1 standard deviation from average" or "2 GB per month." Any attempts to limit the use of an unlimited service is false advertising and a breach of contract.

If the telcos want to impose limits to make their business models better, then they need to stop advertising that their service is "unlimited."

As an aside, Bell's Sympatico tried to place usage limits of 2 GB per month (I think) on their DSL services two or three years ago, but they had to remove it because their major competitor Roger's never matched them, and customers started leaving. I believe that both companies have stopped advertising "unlimited" as their major product differentiator though.

I think the CRTC's decision is a bad one. In my area, the telco is a Crown Corporation, which is owned by the people(SaskTel). We paid the money to lay the telecommunications infrastructure via taxes, and cost of service, and now some other company can come, and capitalize on our expenditures. This is ludicrous. If the CRTC was truly all for competition, it would allow our television over DSL (SaskTel MAX to be packaged separate from the broadband internet service. They would also force cable companies such as Shaw Cable and Rogers Cable to open up their broadband infrastructure to competing cable companies. Broadband prices are a drop in the bucket in Canada compared to other parts of the world, including some areas of the United States, where a 384kbit/s connection costs someone as much or more than a 3mbit/s DSL connection would cost me here in Canada. ($99CDN/mo), or a 2mbit/s DSL connection ($60CDN/mo).

Your prices are way high for Canada:

I pay:

$24 Local line
+$30 1.7/0.4 Mb ADSL
==================
$55 /mo. for phone

Compare that with cable 1.5/0.2 Mb service at $44/mo with TV service, or $54 without.

Yep, and Rogers have it too.

They also have 4 digital channels (7 total if you count the old movie channels as well) that kept on showing movies almost 24/7.

Usually they show the movies on the pay per view, then within a few months they're available for rent (at Rogers Video, no less), and within a month after that, they have them on The Movie Network (the 4 channels I mentioned earlier).

In fact, it might be the opposite. Major broadband ISPs (Bell - DSL, and a few cable companies Cogeco, Rogers, Videotron) are not governement subsidised, but have to live with high taxes and stronger regulations.

Although we have the same problems as those mentionned in the article: little competition for the last-mile. As a result, my DSL cost me 5$/month more that it used to. (And I can't even switch - no cable broadband on my street)

My experience: broadband is great, and worth the money - I can't live without it; but the service is getting worse, and the price increases. There is something wrong there that needs to be investigated.

With antenna-less phones, like the Nokia 8260 and the Nokia 3360, I don't worry about antennas anyway, and these phones are here now, and work with my wireless company!

Disclaimer: I'm not an employee of either, but I do use rogers...

So I don't really get the beef people have with them. Of course Canada doesn't have any DMCA but I am sure if you give Jean some time he'll come up with legislation that will make the DMCA look like a walk in park.

I mean we can't see english signs in quebec, french in Sault Ste Marie, so why should we have the freedom of using the net freely? You sure @home isn't run by Canadians?