Telus HSPA network off to rocky start, iPhone and HTC Hero in tow

A day after Bell’s Nov 4th launch of their new HSPA network Telus’ went live. Like Bell, Telus’ flagship handset is the iPhone, but unlike Bell the remaining handset selection is a lot slimmer at the moment, lacking any lower end phones. Telus is exclusively selling the HTC Hero, an Android 1.5 phone, and the LG BL40 ‘New’ Chocolate, and with Bell they have the Blackberry Bold 9700 and like Rogers the Nokia E71 qwerty. Hopefully this line up will expand, and there are already unconfirmed rumours that the Samsung Omnia II (currently exclusive to Bell) and LG IQ, both Windows Phones, will be coming later this month.

Along with phones comes new plans, and Telus launched their new ‘Clear Choice’ plans, that, like Rogers, scrap the hated system access fee, and include voicemail, but are $5 more than the old plans. Unlike Rogers there is no made up ‘Government Regulatory Recovery Fee’, but in reality removing the fee, but charging more, is no different to how Bell’s plans were 6 years ago, and with sub-brands like Koodo and Fido already offering no SAF plans, Telus’ plans have done little to lower the cost to use a phone on their network – if CRTC hadn’t denied Wind Mobile I am sure things would be a lot different.

What has changed a lot, for the worst though, are the data costs…

There used to be a time that both Bell and Telus were challenging the ridiculous data rates that Rogers were charging, for example there was the now legendary $7 and $15 data plans for Bell and Telus, but as Rogers raised the amount of data they offered for your $, the other two now give us less, and it is these new rates that have a lot of people looking to switch to the new HSPA network up in arms. Telus’ data rates now start at $30 for 500mb (!) up to $85 for 5gb, which basically match Roger’s current offerings, a far cry from many existing customers on the old plans are used to, and with many of them wanting to upgrade to an iPhone it seems that the past few days have not gone too well for Telus – with this open letter to them on The Mobile Ninjas summing up a lot of users feelings.

What’s more there have been widespread reports on forums of problems, ranging from data connection issues, activation system delays, visual voice mail not currently work on the iPhone and lastly poor customer service, especially for existing clients. Unlike Bell, Telus is being unusually strict with allowing existing clients to carry over special offers and plans, and while most understand that they cannot keep their unlimited data plans, they are also finding bonus loyalty features, like free early evenings and caller ID, are no longer available to them. Like any new service there are bound to be initial teething troubles, but the overall consensus is that perhaps Telus wasn’t quite ready to go, but had their hand forced by Bell’s decision to go live on the 4th.

Overall last week’s HSPA launches from both Bell and Telus have not brought any sweeping changes to the Canadian Wireless landscape, and those hoping for US or European like rates from Telus and Bell were both deluded, and bound to be disappointed – until real competition (when, or if, Wind finally gets the go ahead in Canada) comes to Canada there will still be more of the same when it comes to the cost to use a phone here.