We’ve heard it all before. It’s clear that CDMA is nearing the end of the road in this GSM-dominated world, and both Telus and Bell Canada are reportedly giving serious thought to switching over their networks to the GSM standard. As CDMA providers, Canada’s Telus and Bell wireless networks lack global GSM compatibility and popular GSM handsets.
While the rest of the world gets to play with the hottest new handsets as soon as they launch, CDMA customers regularly wait months for handset manufacturers to push out CDMA variants of their more popular GSM mobile phones. Sure, there are CDMA-only handsets out there, but, for the most part, they can’t compete with our favorite GSM hardware.
Following on the Canadian AWS auction’s close, rumors are swirling around the possibility that Telus and Bell could be looking towards 3G (HSPA) or 4G (LTE) GSM technology in the near future. Crossing over to GSM would allow the Canadian carriers to compete with Rogers, allow them to cash in on roaming revenue, and give them the option to offer GSM handsets to their subscriber base.
It remains to be seen whether the Canadian wireless companies will choose to adopt 3G or 4G technologies. But, it stands to reason that 4G LTE would be the network-standard of choice, considering that the move would give Telus and Bell a competitive edge against Rogers while also offering their customers the latest data networks.
“If Telus (and BCE) comes through with this decision, one could conclude that they had little choice if they want to secure their future competitive position,” UBS said.
The Canadian wireless market is in dire need of GSM competition. Rogers customers are routinely charged more than their US GSM counterparts for, and that practice isn’t going to change until Rogers is forced to seriously reconsider their pricing strategy. Telus and Bell would do well to switch over to GSM.
[Via: InformationWeek]