question about usa sim cards

[bylo]

Originally Posted by snaimon

I think Rogers and Fido are now one company. I am a bit surprised your regulators would allow such a merger to result in a monopoly.

Yes Rogers bought Fido and now they are both the essentially the same. There are two developments that may open up Canada to more GSM competition:

1. There is a spectrum auction in progress. Something like 40% of that spectrum is designated for new players only. It's highly unlikely that the winner of such an auction would use anything but GSM. Also, the incumbent wireless providers are required to lease towers and cell repeaters to new players for at least 5 years at "reasonable" rates in order to give them a chance to succeed.

2. Telus, the main western Canadian telco, is currently CDMA-only. However there is speculation that they will start to convert their network to GSM, starting in western Canada, in order to participate in lucrative roaming revenue from foreign visitors to the upcoming Vancouver Olympic games. (Rogers charges something like $2 or $3 per minute for roaming and gets away with it because there is no GSM alternative carrier.)