[TorontoColin]

Perhaps the juiciest thing to come out of the launch today, though, happened during the Q&A session of the launch press conference, where one of the company's executive vice presidents apparently noted that Apple is in the process of manufacturing an AWS-compliant iPhone and that we should "expect an announcement in the coming months" regarding Vidéotron's launch.

You may remember when SaskTel's president and CEO prematurely announced the iPhone 4...

 

[U]

Who else is using Vidéotron's technology? I can't believe that Apple would come out with a different version of the iPhone just for them given their relatively tiny market.

 

[Arthur Dent]

T-Mobile USA is a big one, besides the newcomers in Canada.

 

[stampeder]

Vidéotron joins Wind Mobile and Moblicity using AWS (UMTS IV) in Canada, and they all have U.S. roaming with T-Mobile. For Apple, a market is a market, so after doing their bean counting they'd determine if it is worthwhile to provide such an iPhone version.

 

[U]

For Apple, a market is a market, so after doing their bean counting they'd determine if it is worthwhile to provide such an iPhone version.

Yep, but I kind of based my assumption on the fact that Apple didn't give a CDMA iPhone for Bell and Telus which arguably have a much bigger market than Videotron...

 

[stampeder]

CDMA is a technology that requires a license from Qualcomm, while GSM and HSPA are open standards. That's why there was no CDMA iPhone.

 

[TorontoColin]

I would assume a Videotron iPhone means a T-Mobile iPhone. The big difference between an AWS iPhone and a CDMA iPhone is that an AWS iPhone requires only a minor tweak to the radios they use at the moment while a CDMA iPhone would require a full redesign. An AWS version would be cheap and easy to make by comparison.

 

[outinthornhill]

That being said, the rumoured "intelligence" amongst Apple analysts and watchers is that the next iPhone will be a CDMA version for Verizon and that can only come when the "exclusive" contract with AT&T expires.

 

[profets]

Well it would be nice to have AWS added to the iPhone.. heck, for iPhone 4 Apple just added 2 more bands making a total of 5 (800,850,900,1900,2100). I think the reason for not yet adding 1700 in there is to keep AT&T happy with their contract and not having an iPhone that would work on t-mobile USA
s 3G network. If anything maybe iPhone 5 will get AWS, but I don't think Apple will go changing the hardware in the middle of the product's cycle just to work on a few small AWS carriers in Canada.