Blackberry soon

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Mastermis - 05 Jan 2005 02:28 GMT

In case anyone cares :

I was told this AM by a Fido CSR that they will offer Blackberries
around mid-february.

M.

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- 06 Jan 2005 04:05 GMT

> I was told this AM by a Fido CSR that they will offer Blackberries
> around mid-february.

Sorry, no, it wont be mid-Feb.

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bt schmidt - 06 Jan 2005 05:24 GMT

> In case anyone cares :
>
> I was told this AM by a Fido CSR that they will offer Blackberries
> around mid-february.
>
> M.

Thanks. Any word on Treo 650s? I'm still a little confused by how Rogers
is segmenting the Rogers cell line and the Fido cell line. I thought
they were saving the higher-end, especially business-oriented phones for
their Rogers line, and keeping Fido focused on the youth-oriented,
text/camera phones. But if Fido is getting Blackberries, that shoots
holes in that theory.

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JF Mezei - 06 Jan 2005 06:52 GMT

> they were saving the higher-end, especially business-oriented phones for
> their Rogers line, and keeping Fido focused on the youth-oriented,
> text/camera phones. But if Fido is getting Blackberries, that shoots
> holes in that theory.

The real integration is still being developped and implementation won't start
for another few months and last years. Meanwhile, Rogers has to work to retain
Fido customers. It costs less to have Fido carry new handsets compared to the
costs of Rogers acquiring Fido customers.

Rogers paid for Fido customers. It won't want to pay to acquire them a second
time. So it will take some time to design a strategy to eventually move Fido
customers to Rogers plans, and deal with handset loack and Fido sim card
working transparently on the Rogers's network.

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Tropical Haven - 09 Jan 2005 14:14 GMT

> The real integration is still being developped and implementation won't start
> for another few months and last years. Meanwhile, Rogers has to work to retain
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> customers to Rogers plans, and deal with handset loack and Fido sim card
> working transparently on the Rogers's network.

You never know. You would think that Cingular would try something like
that, but Cingular is requiring all AT&T Wireless customers to get a
Cingular SIM card and a Cingular branded handset, along with choosing a
Cingular plan. There is not date, and so far the migration is
voluntary, but who knows exactly how it will be handled later on (AT&T
Wirless had roughly 22 million customers, of which approximately 250,000
had to be sold off per US government).

Rogers might be better off operating the two divisions independently and
then examining the Cingular/AT&T situation and try avoid making the same
mistakes/mishaps Cingular is making.

TH

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JF Mezei - 09 Jan 2005 19:59 GMT

> You never know. You would think that Cingular would try something like
> that, but Cingular is requiring all AT&T Wireless customers to get a
> Cingular SIM card and a Cingular branded handset, along with choosing a
> Cingular plan.

Cingular has some requirements to free up the AT&T trademark ASAP. AT&T is to
start marketing AT&T Wireless (Sprint provided service under AT&T
branding/billing) as soon as Cingular has stopped using that trademark.

Dumping AT&T logos ASAP was part of the deal between AT&T and Cingular that
allowed Cingular to get the AT&T Wireless assets.

Also, if Cingular inherited any TDMA customers, they will probably want to
move those real fast over to GSM. From a technology point of view, Cingular
acquired a superset of itself.

Rogers acquitred a subset of itself, so integrating Fido will in fact be
easier. Fido is just 1900 GSM, whereas Rogers is Analogue TDMA , 850GSM and 1900GSM.

> There is not date, and so far the migration is
> voluntary, but who knows exactly how it will be handled later on (AT&T
> Wirless had roughly 22 million customers,

Since Cingular is obligated under contract to stop using the AT&T trademark,
all AT&T customers will start seing Cingular logos on their bills. Their old
plan may simply be given a Cingular trademark/name, and not be offered to new
customers who will be steered to Cingular-heritage plans/handsets.

> Rogers might be better off operating the two divisions independently and
> then examining the Cingular/AT&T situation and try avoid making the same
> mistakes/mishaps Cingular is making.

The situations are different enough that I am not sure they apply. It is a
huge job to integrate 2 networks. But the same banks which will happy to sell
their Microcell stock to Rogers also lent Rogers the money to buy that stock
from the banks. Those banks will want to see Rogers streamline the two
companies and eliminate duplication of costs.

Rogers will also want to make use of Fido's bandwidth.

If Rogers doesn't integrate Fido, then questions will be asked by lenders and
shareholders because Rogers will have spend billions, increased its debts by
billions and gotten no benefits other than being to claim a greater number of subscribers.

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