Canada's Rogers and Telus to start iPad and iPad mini sales, Wind offering nano-SIMs for iPhone 5
AppleInsider Staff
Canadian wireless carriers Rogers and Telus will start selling cellular LTE versions of Apple's iPad and iPad mini in the near future, while Wind Mobile has already started sales of nano-SIM cards to bring unlocked models of the iPhone 5 to its network.
Both Rogers and Telus made the announcement on Friday in posts to their respective websites, saying that customers will be able to buy the iPad and iPad mini from carrier stores in the "coming weeks," reports Engadget.
The rival companies both have webpages dedicated to the iPad, with information and images mirroring Apple's own site. Particular plan specifics were not released, but each carrier said it would continue offering no-contract data plans.
As for Wind Mobile, the wireless provider is now selling iPhone 5-compatible nano-SIM cards for $25, allowing owners of unlocked devices to switch over to the company's network. Wind is not an official Apple wireless partner, making the move similar to what T-Mobile did in the U.S. when the iPhone 5 first launched in 2012.
The smaller carrier's network tops out at HSPA+ and does not support LTE, meaning iPhone 5 users will have to decide whether the carrier's lower priced plans are worth the trade.
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7 Comments
… The smaller carrier's network tops out at HSPA+ and does not support LTE, meaning iPhone 5 users will have to decide whether the carrier's lower priced plans are worth the trade.
This isn't really the issue "on the ground" at least in Western Canada. Fido, Telus & Rogers all have LTE but it's spotty, throttled and most of the time you wonder why the "LTE" is even showing on the phone because all your getting is HSPA+.
the big problem with WIND isn't the speed it's the fact that the "big players" (Fido, Rogers and Telus), have an effective monopoly on the towers and the bandwidth leaving WIND's service so bad that you can't get a signal most of the time. If you could get a reliable signal on WIND, the (slight) difference in effective speed wouldn't be any barrier.
Also, seriously … who cares if they are selling the hardware in their stores? Unless you live in the boonies there are many places to buy an iPad already, and Rogers and Telus have both *supported* iPads since the beginning. Fido does too, but it tries to rip you off in that it won't let you share your data plan between devices.
The big news here is WIND getting into the game, however slowly and however handicapped they are by the sketchy practices of the "big players."
How big is the Canadian market? Is irrelevant a size?
[quote name="ankleskater" url="/t/158064/canadas-rogers-and-telus-to-start-ipad-and-ipad-mini-sales-wind-offering-nano-sims-for-iphone-5#post_2346872"]How big is the Canadian market? Is irrelevant a size?[/quote] Ouch. That's a little harsh.
Take off eh!
Since WIND uses AWS, I'm guessing they are only supporting recently produced iPhone 5 with AWS support and older iPhone 5 released before T-Mobile became an official partner that don't have AWS support won't work?