Telus BlackBerry Tour and Storm Won't Play Nice With Upcoming HSPA Network

telus-hspa-network-notice

So let’s say you’re a Telus customer sporting a BlackBerry Storm and Tour… Both devices work just swimmingly on the Telus network, and you’re happy. But what happens when Telus launches their new HSPA network? According to a leaked internal document dated in late July:

‘Please note that our current line up of HSPA devices won’t be compatible with the Canadian HSPA network. When the HSPA Network launches, Telus will be providing a new HSPA line up of devices that will work on that Network’

So what does it all mean? In a nutshell, if you’re a Telus Storm or Tour user, you’ll need to upgrade to a new-and-improved device to take advantage of the new network when it arrives… It’s that, or stick with what you’ve got and enjoy slower speeds. Enjoy slower speeds? That sounds odd.

[Via: MobileSyrup]

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James was born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada. Almost 15 years ago he started out in the 'real world' as a web and graphic designer. Through the years he has finely tuned his skills in SEO, internet marketing, conversion strategy, and project management. To date, he runs his own successful consulting business where he advises companies all over the globe. A co-founder of www.crackberry.com, and sole proprietor of www.mactropolis.com, James in recent years has become very active in the tech blogosphere. Online community building and strategy is fast becoming one of his passions. Watch for James' no frills attitude, unique perspective and to-the-point comments here on IntoMobile!

James

With any luck TELUS will just release the Onyx with their HSPA network. Both Bell and TELUS will be running the same 3G frequencies as Rogers… 850/1900MHz. So any new devices will have to be North American HSPA ready.
Maciek

I have not been following Telus’ development of their HSPA network. Does anyone care to comment what frequency are they going to deploy it on?
Insider

The Storm and Tour devices are designed to use HSPA as an out-roam capability. So Verizon spec’ed them as EVDO Rev A when in Verizon’s home network, and HSPA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS/GSM when “out and about”. Same is true when Tour and Storm are sold by TELUS and Bell, with EVDO on Home network, out-roam on the GSM standard.

New HSPA devices will be 850/1900 MHz in North America, World frequencies elsewhere.

A TELUS Tour customer experiences no difference in perceived speeds (web-browsing, downloads, video etc) relative to a Rogers (or other) HSPA Bold customer, when in Rogers’ HSPA coverage. Outside of Rogers’ HSPA coverage, the TELUS EVDO Tour and Storm are much faster than the Bold.
Justin

Both Bell & Telus will deploy HSPA on 1900 and 850 MHz frequency everywhere (except in rural area, will be only 850MHz).
Anthony

There seems to be a lot of misunderstood info about TELUS/Bell’s HSPA network.

First off its not a standard HSPA network simply because standard HSPA does not support voice, only data. Rogers supports there voice through GPRS/GSM on a different band and TELU/Bell does not support GSM or GPRS and doesn’t expect to.

Secondly, TELUS/Bell’s network will be on the new HSPA+ (PLUS) technology which basically is still data only but voice is done over IP thanks to the speed capabilities of HSPA+.

As of now i believe there are no voice HSPA+ devices available and the only device would be the Sierra 306 internet data stick. Which is the true advantage of the HSPA+ network. I do not believe the increase in data rate will benefit Blackberry users which primarily use there device for messenging.

So as you discovered the TELUS Tour/Storm/HTC Snap/HTC Touch2 will not be compatible with the new network. But are still excellent products and will be world compatible on other HSPA networks across the world at very decent speeds considering your using a 2″ screen.

Now if only people could share this info to customers and even TELUS costumer care staff who are still not up to date on this reality.
Mika

To Anthony,

The network will be standard WCDMA/HSPA network. It supports normal CS voice calls and simultaneous HSPA data connections.
There is no need to use VoIP.
cdwilkinson

for everyone who has not been following up on telus updates. the new network is the HSPA, which uses the 2100mhz, which the soft launch which is suppose to be released as of sept/oct and if all goes well, full launch is set for jan/feb 2010. telus is to release other hspa devices for the new network shortly.
Jason

Wow – there is so much misinformation here. Alright, let’s get a few things straight:

1) TELUS/Bell are deploying HSPA+ on 850/1900 NOT 1700 (like the new entrants are doing) or 2100.

2) It will be a standard HSPA+ network like those around the world. No Voice over IP. UMTS supports voice calls.

- Jason
Anthony

Dear Mika,

that is actually why people think the storm and tour will be compatible. Truth is TELUS/Bell are deploying HSPA+ as Rogers launched in the Toronto AREA this month and both voice and data will go through that technology.

But i do agree there is much confusion on the question and nobody on either side has been very clear. All that is clear is that HSPA doesn’t support voice but HSPA+ does. I dont see how or why they would roll out a standard HSPA network that doesnt support voice knowing very well they are after the roaming market?
Rich

If only hspa+ devices will work on the new bell\telus network then why are they launching with the old iphone 3g in there line up. are you saying you can get the iphone 3g but voice wont work on it.
Rene

Hi, I’m using a Blackberry Tour with Telus and 3G works for me… A friend of mine also says it works. So I don’t know where you are getting this nonsense from…
Rene

Don’t be fooled by this 3G indicator.
It will only show 3G if you are outside of North America and travelling with your world phone on GSM.
For those who see 1XEV on their phones, that is perfectly normal. 1XEV is 3G for Telus & Bell.

I’ve confirmed this with 3 different Telus representatives so I hope that helps all you confused people out there.
Mike

Are you serious? .. wherever you got that info your completely wrong. I work for telus, and own a Tour and a Storm. Both work perfectly fine on the new network, we still support gsm cdma as well as the new hspa. the new network has nothing to do with the compatibility of the cdma and gsm phones. Jeeze people.
Mike

Mike so are you saying that the New Storm 2 will support and work on the new HSPA+ network? All the talk is a bit over my head. I just got off the phone with the Telus Connect store in South Centre Calgary, and was told that the new Storm 2 is in, but that it is going to work only on the CDMA network and not the HSPA+ network.

Mike