I thought that I might jot down some experiences of the Nexus One i the States.

I have been snowbirding in Florida for the last 3 months, with Nexus and T-Mobile since the beginning of Jan.

I signed up for T-Mobile's month to month pre-paid. This gave me 1000 minutes and unlimited web and email. For $79.

Along with the N1, I bought the desktop charger/stand.

First Encounter: The N1 was a little flakey in terms of reception. This lasted around 2 weeks.

Things just got better and better:
Reception is great now - call clarity is perfect, data download is rapid !
Google Maps function with turn by turn directions is precise, but given the coupling with voice searches, well.... it is fabulous. ( I took back my Garmin 765T that I had bough just before Christmas - one of the happiest days of my life). Being able to speak 1845 Fuelfox Road, and Google being smart enough to know that I mean "FuelFox road in the same town that I am in !!! not somewhere else... well priceless.

I live by Google Mail and Apps, so I am a little biased. My life lives in Googles' servers (200GB of it).

I have not a bad thing to say about the phone, it is easy to use, beautiful to look at, comfortable to hold and fast to operate.

Now I am dreading coming back. I need some advice; I can't find any good comments o experience of any users of the Nexus One, in Canada. So, can I please ask a couple of questions of anyone up there who has taken the plunge;


What carrier are you using ?
Where do you live and work ?
What plan did you choose and why ?
How do you rate the Voice reception ?
How do you rate the Data reception ?

Thanks. Dreading going back. If anyone has any questions, I would be very happy to help.

If you want 3G, get a Wind Mobile SIM Card (assuming you're in Toronto/Calgary/Edmonton). You can get 2G on Rogers.

But First, make sure you get an unlock code from T-Mobile, otherwise you're stuck with them.

I own the Nexus One. It is not on contract.
I live in Collingwood, Ontario.

Wind is the "pair" to T-mobile, so it would be the logical choice. But since you're outside of service area, you'd be paying roaming nonstop (=bad)
You'll probably have to go with Rogers/Fido.

I own the Nexus One. It is not on contract.
I live in Collingwood, Ontario.
Doesn't matter if you own the Nexus One - it's still carrier-locked to T-Mobile unless you unlock it (if you put a Rogers/Fido SIM in it, you'll get an "Invalid SIM" or "SIM Locked" error).

I thought only the subsidized version of the Nexus One came locked - while the full price version was unlocked.

Just checked and you guys are correct. The unsubsidized Nexus One is indeed unlocked.

A lot has changed since this tread was started last weekend. Google has launched another version of the Nexus1 that operates on AT&T, Rogers, Bell and Telus and ships to Canada.

People who bought the first version that runs on T-mobile in the USA will be able to use it here if they are in an area served by Wind Mobile or, soon, Mobilicity, and it will work on Rogers, at slower speed, IF they get it unlocked. That process should not be expensive or difficult.

Actually, according to a column in the Toronto Star that I can't find right now Google has said explicitly that it won't work with Bell/Telus yet, though it doesn't say why. Technically the phone should work, so unless there are any 3G problems that require a 2G backup I don't understand why they would say that.

Whoever manages Telus' Twitter account is indicating that the Nexus One will work in 3G mode with a Telus SIM card.

Confusing for sure. I'll wait until an actual customer indicates the device is working before I believe it.

Actually, according to a column in the Toronto Star that I can't find right now Google has said explicitly that it won't work with Bell/Telus yet, though it doesn't say why. Technically the phone should work, so unless there are any 3G problems that require a 2G backup I don't understand why they would say that.
If the phone is unlocked and has 850/1700 HSPA (which it does), it will work on Bell and Telus. They probably only say Rogers because Bell doesn't have GSM so it won't work on all of Bell's coverage area (albeit the vast majority, minus Manitoba and Saskatchewan I guess) which might make for some confusion between CDMA/HSPA but it'll work everywhere on Rogers, either EDGE or HSPA.

Just my idea... and yes, I realize that paragraph was horribly constructed.

Just to clarify: it's 850MHz and 1900MHz that will ensure compatibility with Bell/Telus (1700MHz is part of the AWS band that Wind uses).

Actually, according to a column in the Toronto Star that I can't find right now Google has said explicitly that it won't work with Bell/Telus yet, though it doesn't say why. Technically the phone should work, so unless there are any 3G problems that require a 2G backup I don't understand why they would say that.
My guess is that it's The Star writer saying it won't work, having never talked to anyone at Google/HTC/Bell/Telus. Jumping to conclusions (Google doesn't mention Bell or Telus on the order page) is a frequent subsitute for research at The Star (and not just the technology reporters, who have been wrong many times). There is a reason The Star has to give away 30,000 papers a day (3x that of The Globe and Mail) to keep its circulation numbers up for the advertisers.

I agree that it was probably the writer, but the article did explicitly say that Google has said that the N1 does not yet work with Bell and Telus.

Also, I could be wrong but I think it was a news service article and not a Star columnist.