[kwlug-disc] android phone, anyone?

[Dave Cramer]

HSPA that bell is selling is not world standard ?

Dave

On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 3:10 PM, Khalid Baheyeldin <kb at 2bits.com> wrote:
> If you ever travel, specially outside of Canada/USA, then GSM is the
> standard to have. If you have a handset that can do GSM (tri-band or
> quad-band) then you are good for most of the world.
>
> What this means is that you can buy a local SIM card and pop it
> into your handset and you are good to go.
>
> Prices are far cheaper in other parts of the world than here, for example
> I am told that a SIM card (effectively a phone number and a prepaid plan)
> is 10 LE in Egypt (that is CAD $1.92), and you can load it with 25 LE (that
> is CAD $4.81!) for 100 minutes.
>
> This beats roaming charges which can rack up in the 100s.
>
> Only Rogers and Fido have world standard GSM in Canada.
>
> A new player that opened for business yesterday is WIND Mobile. I was
> initially happy to hear that a new entrant is coming the the market. They
> are backed by an Egyptian magnate who made lots of money putting cell
> phone networks in many parts of the world.
>
> My enthusiasm was dampened after I found out that they operate in the
> AWS spectrum which is non-standard in the rest of the world (i.e. not
> GSM compatible). What this means is that unlocked phones will not
> work with them, meaning they have less handset choices and you have
> to buy it from them (something that is totally alien elsewhere).
>
> It is good ot have competition though. Perhaps Rogers will lower their
> prices eventually.
>
> For handsets, there is a new Android "Droid" phone that is getting good
> reviews. There is also the Nokia N900 which is Debian Linux.
> --
> Khalid M. Baheyeldin
> 2bits.com, Inc.
> http://2bits.com
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