BREAKING: Rogers Announces Android Revolution in June 2009!

by Android Fan on May 7th, 2009

Well, it looks like Canadians will FINALLY get their wish of Android powered handsets! Rogers has announced today that they will be releasing Android phones on June 2nd, 2009!

Rogers has not released any information about pricing or any subscription plans, but we can probably expect plans similar to those on the iPhone 3G. Here’s what the infamous Rogers PR rep Liz Hamilton had to say:

“Regarding pricing, it will be released soon, but in the meantime, I can confirm that customers who activate or upgrade to a HTC Dream or HTC Magic smartphone will be able to take advantage of Rogers Wireless’ in-market pricing,” spokeswoman Elizabeth Hamilton said. “And I can also confirm that customers can choose from contract or no-contract pricing.”

What Android Handsets Will Rogers Sell?

Rogers will be selling the HTC Dream and Magic. As you may already know, the Dream is known as the G-1 initially sold by T-Mobile in the USA. What are the differences between the two? Well, the Dream has a slide out physical QWERTY keyboard, and the newer Magic is touchscreen based.

This is exciting news for all Canadians that have been waiting patiently to try out the Android OS. With the launch of the Palm Pre coming from Bell announced yesterday, it looks like Rogers has decided to counter with Android. Rumors of a new iPhone being debuted in a couple months will make for a very interesting summer!

I am going to order my invisibleSHIELD for the Android now, so it’ll get here in time for June 2.

Will you be buying an Android, Pre, or iPhone this summer?

Posted under: News, Rogers/Fido

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ole

you have to be a total techie these days to understand how these phones work.

Pearl

Re: spectrum compatibily

Not a lot of details on it but the listing on the Best Buy website says that it has a 3.5G network.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/marketing/android/en/defa...

hockeyrink

What nobody seems to address is that SO FAR there has not been any indication that the G1 will be able to use the Rogers 3G network. It is a device that only supports 1700/2100 MHz spectrum.

Rogers supports 3G only on the 850/1900MHz spectrum.

So what does this mean? Either you'll be running your Canadian G1 at only EDGE speeds (~18KB/s - SLOW), or Rogers is rolling out new network hardware in the 1700/2100MHz spectrum (unlikely).

How do I know? Because I've been using an Android in Calgary for 2 months under FIDO (same network carrier).

You are best to wait until the new version hardware comes out (The G1v2 "Bigfoot") in Q3 of '09. Or the SamSung i7500 (which doesn't have the keyboard):
http://www.talkandroid.com/1059-android-donut-u...

BB

Same here, I'm a reluctant Rogers customer because the alternatives all seem to be worse. But Android may make things interesting.

Rumour alert: Apparently both Bell and Telus are currently working to deploy GSM, with the goal of making CDMA a "legacy" network. THAT should make the Canadian wireless marketplace even more interesting.

Androids & Sheep

Ooh, this is exciting. I was expecting Rogers to drag their feet for forever.

And I'm surprised that Bell was able to sign the Pre -- I switched from Bell to Rogers eons ago because their selection of phones was so dismal.