One more tidbit of Canadian mobile news before I take a breather over here. Best Buy Mobile has confirmed that the TELUS (NYSE: TU) HTC Snap and HTC Touch Pro2 are ‘coming soon’. Rumored pricing to purchase the HTC Snap outright is sitting at $449.99, while the Touch Pro2 is coming in at $549.99.

No launch details for the Snap or Touch Pro2 were revealed, but in the flyer above, all details within are ‘good until July 30th’. So, chances are we’ll see all 3 of these devices before then. In fact, the TELUS BlackBerry Tour is scheduled to drop on July 15th (starting at $249.99 on a 3-year contract), so we could very well see all three devices launched on that date. That said, I’d lean more towards a solo Tour launch on the 15th, with the Snap and Touch Pro2 coming sometime between the 16th and the 31st. We’ll see!

[Via: MobileSyrup]

Here’s the latest rumor from the land of Canadian mobile. Word has it that Samsung lovers in the Great White North are in for a treat. Samsung is set to release the ‘Link’ via Bell on July 15th. Not much else is known at this point (no pricing or device specs), but as you can see from the amazing image above (can you feel the sarcasm?), the Link will at the very least feature a full QWERTY keyboard. No slider here.

Stay tuned for more on the Samsung Link… I’m very interested to learn more about this one!

[Via: MobileSyrup]

NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) is joining the mobile money market with its own remittance service. Starting from July 21st, individual users (as opposed to corporate customers) of the carrier’s i-mode service will be able to remit up to 20,000 yen (about $208) per transfer by simply inputting the payee’s mobile phone number. The payee then receives a mail notification on its mobile phone and is given the option of depositing the money in a domestic bank account or having the amount credited to their monthly phone bill. The payee can receive remittances totaling up to 200,000 yen (about $2,080) per month.

Best of all, the service doesn’t require any registration or opening of a specific bank account!

Cost wise, the charges per payment (including consumption tax) will be 105 yen for the payer and 65 yen for the payee. The payee is not charged, however, if the remittance is deposited into a Mizuho Bank account or credited to their monthly phone bill.

TracFone, a prepaid mobile virtual network operator in the United States who peddles to drug dealers and illegal immigrants, just launched a new sub brand called “StraightTalk.” Prepaid never really was big in America, while in Europe and Asia it is the way a majority of users consume, but with the economy in a nose dive, and The New York Times stating today that unemployment has hit the highest levels in 26 years at 9.5%, people will want to control their spending.

For $45 per month, with no contract, you get unlimited voice, unlimited SMS, unlimited 411 and 30 MB of data. That is what I call a steal. If it still isn’t cheap enough for you, you can opt for the $30/month plan which provides 1000 minutes, 1000 texts, 30 MB of data, and unlimited 411.

This isn’t prepaid how I’ve grown to know and love it in Europe. In many of the countries I’ve been to and picked up prepaid SIM cards, you load the card with credit and then when you reach closer and closer to zero remaining credit, you top up your SIM card. With StraightTalk you pay a monthly fee, regardless if you use your mobile phone or not. That $45 will get you unlimited voice and SMS for 30 days, after that you have to pay another $45. In Finland if I go on vacation in a cottage and don’t touch my phone except to send a few text messages, I pay for those few text messages and that’s it. If I was on StraightTalk, I just wasted $45.

There will be taxes and other fees, so who knows how high that $45 will really become, and you can only choose from a Motorola (NYSE: MOT) W385, Motorola RAZR V3A or LG200, but still, this is crazy cheap for America in terms of rates per month.

[Via: Phone Scoop, hat tip to @caaarlo]

A memo has just leaked from AT&T saying that the day the iPhone 3GS launched, it broke almost every record AT&T has ever had. Along with that, the day Micahel Jackson died, AT&T’s network was processing around 65,000 text messages a second. Crazy stuff:

1. Fact of the Week: On June 25, the day Michael Jackson died, text messages sent on our network spiked at 65,000 messages per second — the largest volume ever recorded — surpassing events like American Idol voting and New Year’s Eve, when millions of our customers wish their friends and family a happy new year via text.”

2. “iLaunch day 2009 was one for the record books, as AT&T customers scrambled to get their hands on the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet.

Here’s a look at some of the milestones we achieved:

* Best-ever sales day in our retail stores
* Second-largest traffic day in our retail stores
* Most transactions processed via our IT systems in a single day
* Most upgrade eligibility checks in a single day
* Largest order day in att.com history
* Largest features sales day in att.com history

On this year’s launch day, iPhone sales exceeded sales recorded on 2008’s iPhone launch day, Black Friday 2008 and Dec. 26, 2008 — all heavy-volume sales days. In fact, this year we surpassed 2008’s launch day sales at about noon Central time, and sustained our previous peak hour record, also set in 2008, for 11 straight hours.

[Image via Gizmodo]

Woohoo, we have some new coverage areas to report in T-Mobile (NYSE: DT)’s magical quest to expand their 3G network. The latest cities to be graced with T-Mo 3G are Springfield, Cape Cod and New Bedford (all in Massachusetts). Congrats to everyone in the area, and I hope the 3G speeds do you right. In the meantime, T-Mobile must be hard at work as there are many, MANY cities left on their list for the remainder of this years’ 3G expansion. Keep on keepin’ on T-Mobile, and best of luck the rest of the way.

[Via: TMoNews]

Now this is an odd one. Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) New Zealand has reportedly pulled the HTC Magic from their website. Calls have been put in to Vodafone in the region, and the response was somewhat ominous: the Magic can be purchased for $1,099 NZD, but no more are in stock and it isn’t clear when more will be available. Very strange indeed. Blogger Ben Gracewood has also reported that not only is the device no longer available online, but all stock has been removed from stores. If you’re in the region and are hoping to pick up a Magic, looks like your best bet would be to either call Vodafone or pop down to a local store to see if you can nab the now elusive device. (Either that or catch a flight to Australia).

Something isn’t right here for sure. The Magic was launched only last week in New Zealand at a large party with many celebs in attendance. One thing is for certain, time will tell us what’s going on here.

Note: It’s interesting to note that the HTC Magic in New Zealand is a ‘Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Experience’ device. I suppose it’s possible Vodafone is having some issues with Google? Who knows. Let’s wait and see.

[Via: AndroidAuthority]

Chances are if you were one of the eager beavers signing up on the T-Mobile myTouch 3G mini site, you have received an email to add fuel to the fire…. Pictured above, T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) has sent out this mailer to help build some much needed anticipation for device launch. Nothin’ too crazy here, but the mailer does point out that myTouch 3G pre-orders should arrive and be in-hand by August 3rd.

In case you missed it, a press event is scheduled for July 8th in New York City, where the myTouch 3G will be formally announced. From that point pre-orders for existing customers will be available. Latest rumors have the device available for general consumption on August 5th, but we’ll see. These dates have a way of changing.

[Via: TMoNews]

In what may be known as the most “why didn’t I think of that?” moment in mobile telecommunications history, French operator SFR got around the problem of mobile networks being slow and latency prone by stringing fiber directly to the cell sites. With HSPA, better known as 3.5G in Europe, and 3G in America (3G in Europe is called WCDMA), your mobile data session does not go from your handset, to the tower, to your operator’s central switching hub, back to the tower, and then finally in your handset — it goes from your handset, to the tower, which is connected directly to the internet, and then back to your handset. The term used to describe the connection between cell sites (towers), the internet, and an operator’s central network, is called backhaul.

Backhaul is crazy expensive, using advanced microwave equipment usually, or an operator may choose to lease a T1 or T3 line and connect it to a cell site. Imagine sitting in a park, everyone is on their laptop or mobile phone, and you’re all sharing a T1 line. That is why you have terrible speed, latency and a generally poor experience.

SFR, tired of paying loads of money each month to lease lines and pay for backhaul equipment, strung their own fiber to cell sites. They’ve basically given themselves unlimited bandwidth potential, and are preparing for the future when LTE starts showing up. Over the next year 350 sites will be upgraded covering 66% of Paris, 50% of Marseille and 50% of Lyon. Expect to see more of this happening around the world, very soon.

Depending on which operator, analyst, handset maker, or homeless jazz musician on the street you listen to, mobile data is set to increase by several orders of magnitude over the next 5 years. If you think you’ve seen network congestion now, you’ve ain’t seen shit.

Note: I know our American readers call operators carriers, but I just can’t bring myself to use that term. No one I know says that.

[Via: Unwired View]

Okay, scratch that July 20th. stuff - the officially official launch date for Sprint (NYSE: S)’s BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Tour is July 12th., and will cost you $199 on contract and after rebates. We had heard similar pricing and date for Verizon (and presumably Alltel), if Sprint doesn’t really do it for you. Of course, Bell and Telus are also hosting the BlackBerry 9630 if you happen to be north of the border. If you still think you’ll need a reminder when the Tour’s ready roll, be sure to sign up for e-mail updates from Sprint.

[RT @sprint]