Sprint EV-DO Roams To The 16th Century in Canada..

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http://gearlog.com/blogs/gearlog/archive/2006/03/07/7216.aspx

Sprint EV-DO Roams To The 16th Century in Canada

Quebec CityLa plus belle cite dans la belle province, Quebec City is the closest you'll get to Europe without hopping the pond: an idyll of winding streets, 16th-century walls and a great chateau overlooking it all. So I got curious when I saw the announcements from both Bell Canada and TELUS that they were turning on high-speed EV-DO networking in downtown Quebec City, making QC certainly the most historic town with high-speed wireless. Both networks already have service in other major Canadian cities, including Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

Here's the exciting part, though: Bell Canada's Marie-Camille Blais told me that Sprint EV-DO cards such as the Novatel S620 will now be able to get high-speed service in Canada. This marks the first international EV-DO roaming agreement from the US that I know of. When I called a Sprint rep to confirm, she said, "We're testing in that market ... so if it works, it works." You won't be charged anything additional over your current EV-DO plan to roam to Canada (yet), Sprint said, but you should call 888-226-7212 to make sure your card is provisioned for roaming, and to get the roaming information updated on your card.

I called competitor Verizon Wireless and their roaming partner TELUS, and both said that Verizon doesn't allow EV-DO roaming into Canada yet -- you'll drop to the slower 1X network when you cross the border. Verizon and TELUS need to get on la boule.
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xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 1969

Very cool. I didn't expect it to be free (at the moment). Cingular's HSDPA global roaming is ridiculously high, even for business use. I hear that Mexico roaming is also coming for Sprint.

Looking forward to domestic roaming too for 1xRTT data, which is supposedly coming soon, after legal agreements are worked out.

Michael · Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 7:12 pm Post subject:

Now this previous post is starting to make sense:

Sprint PRL 20218 Provides Roaming in Mexico and Canada
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Nexx9 · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 27 Dec 2005 Posts: 11

Taberhouaite c'est bon tout ca en hostie.

It sure looks like Sprint is the pathfinder here, with the huge investments, and the no-restriction policy ('course we don't really know about that 100% yet). I've been wondering if I made the right choice, but with the two above, the roaming, testing And Sprint's backbone methinks it's all good. Nex

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 1969

Sprint is now about an equal player overall and seems to be leading on the data side, but I'd like to see Sprint acquire Alltel while Verizon is busy working out buying themselves from Vodaphone. An extra 10 million wireless customers and Alltel rural footprint would really well position whoever acquires them.

BTW, I don't think we'll see EVDO domestic roaming for years, until some nextgen thing comes along that makes EVDO a less important service, similar to 1xRTT today.