Anyone using a Nexus S in Canada?

[Roze]

I'm with Rogers and will be getting a Nexus S soon. I've made a similar thread in the Rogers Forum, but thought I'd cast a wider net posting it here. I just want to know if anyone is using the Nexus S in Canada, what carrier are you with and how are you finding the experience? My main concern is how is using data on 2G only if your carrier has the 850/1900/2100 frequency? Bell, Telus and Rogers all use the same frequency so hearing from a member with one of those carriers would be excellent.

 

[faithcry]

I'm in Canada, but I'm not using data. As far as i know though, you would be on the edge network w/ Rogers, not sure how good it is, but the 2G and reception is just fine. If you want the 3g bands, switching to Wind or Mobicity are viable options.

 

[quantumrand]

I came from 2G only phone, and for the most part, it was manageable. Things like Twitter and Facebook updates worked fine. Even some streaming from Pandora worked alright. Web browsing was a bit limiting since pages would sometimes take quite a while to load, up to several minutes sometimes.

What it really can't do is video. Youtube was pretty worthless on 2G. Often times the video would take so long to buffer that it would get confused and get stuck. You're looking at 10+ minute buffer times for even fairly short clips.

 

[Roze]

What carrier are you with Quantumrand?

 

[quantumrand]

What carrier are you with Quantumrand?

I was with AT&T (I'm an American). I was using the European HTC Hero, but AT&T changed their network in my region such that data is no longer handled by their 2G network, effectively forcing me to either get one of their crappy Smartphone offerings (paying for it out of my own pocket), or leaving AT&T. I chose to switch to T-Mobile.

 

[Roze]

I was with AT&T (I'm an American).

lol, that was what I thought. Thought you might have moved to Canada lol And that sucks for you with AT&T but at least you can use 3G on your phone now

 

[quantumrand]

lol, that was what I thought. Thought you might have moved to Canada lol And that sucks for you with AT&T but at least you can use 3G on your phone now

Yup, I'm pretty happy with the switch, and very happy with the Nexus S.

 

[netcbc]

On 3.5G i think it's called on mobilicity, it's good

 

[Roze]

On 3.5G i think it's called on mobilicity, it's good

Rogers also has 3.5 (HSPA+). You have the NS on mobilicity and you can use only edge? Or does Mobilicity support the NS frequency bands?

 

[MartinS]

Hi Roze!

Welcome (Nearly) to the NS club!

 

[Brendanmurphy]

Nexus s will get edge on Rogers only. Bell and telus only have an hspa+ network and no edge to fallback on, not that it matters as there network is twice the size of Rogers 2g lol. But yea nexus s will only get 3G on wind mobilicity.

 

[neuromatico]

Hi Roze,

I have a Nexus S on WIND (I took advantage of their $4O Holiday Miracle: no contract unlimited NA voice and data). They use the same frequencies as T-Mobile and I'm very pleased with my 3G data speed. If you stay with Rogers (or another of the big 3), you'll be limited to 2G.

From Wikipedia:

Wind Mobile provides UMTS wireless services with HSPA for data, using its license on the UMTS IV frequency band, also known as Advanced Wireless Services (AWS). Using this band, user equipment transmits at 1710–1755 MHz, and receives at 2110–2155 MHz.

Wind Mobile is the first Canadian wireless service provider to make use of the AWS spectrum for its network. In North America, T-Mobile USA is the largest provider to use this spectrum. Wind's use of AWS requires that customers use an AWS-capable handset, which are less common than band II and III handsets, which predate band IV by more than 10 years.

Since Wind's launch in Canada, other service providers have begun operations using AWS. As of 2010, this includes Mobilicity and Vid

 

[Crusher3200]

The nexus s will only be compatible on Mobilicity or Wind Mobile, which both operate on the AWS band same as the T-Mobile version. Regardless though, you will still be able to use voice text and data on Rogers, Telus, Bell, Fido, Koodo, and Virgin. Rogers and Fido support 2g data for the nexus s while telus and bell have no 2g network since they recently changed to HSDPA (sim cards) so they don't have the network that Rogers/Fido had built years ago. I'm using my unlocked European HTC Desire on Rogers and it is definately usable on 2G Edge. Speeds aren't impressive, 0.20 MB/S to be exact most of the times but at the same time, I've tried on my friend's phone with 3g support for rogers and they could only reach speeds of 0.20-0.40 MB/S which is fairly disgusting. Webbrowsing, facebook, are all fine to use. One note is that youtube/video will NOT load as they take atleast 10min to buffer and usually will say unable to play video.

That being said, the nexus s will most likely get an AT&T version because of the exclusivity to T-MOBILE at the moment. If they don't, get the T-MOBILE Nexus S if you really want. If its a great phone to buy (not that I can recommend due to the horrifying construction of the body and I hate Samsung in general) then purchase it by all means.

Hope this helped

 

[Haikuguy]

Any word on release date in Canada and price?

 

[Roze]

Any word on release date in Canada and price?

Samsung says the Google Nexus S is coming to Canada | MobileSyrup.com

So I'm going to wait for the 1900 frequency version that would be compatible with Rogers. I just hope it comes soon!!!

 

[Roland27]

Roze, if you haven't already, watch this interview with Dave Dobbin CEO of mobilicity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR8lT9eKnJM
He touches on when the Nexus S is coming to Canada. Also I found the entire interview to be very educational on the whole Canadian Cellular service as a whole. Its crazy how Canadian's are paying over double in their cell bills compared to people in the Sates. He also has some funny things to say about the Canadian Big 3 phone companies and their monopoly on the market.
I bought my girlfriend a Nexus S for Christmas from bestbuy in the US. I wanted to get her an android phone. Its her first smart phone, so she's completely blown away. She has wifi at work and at home, and everywhere we go, so she doesn't have Data on the phone. Data is so expensive through Rogers (what the phone is currently on). If a company like wind or Mobilicity ever made it to my city (Sarnia ON), we would switch providers in a heart beat.
Eventually I'm probably going to root her phone and play with it more, but right now she's completely thrilled with it. I think the aquarium background theme keeps her hypnotized for hours

 

[sookster54]

I'm not surprised with 20% being happy with wireless in Canada, we have low coverage (except BC/Alberta) and we pay the most for fees and contracts (and we get 3 years instead of 2 years) and not to mention how crappy Telus, Bell and Rogers treats their customers. It's why I buy outright now and pay month to month.

 

[Brendanmurphy]

The nexus s will only be compatible on Mobilicity or Wind Mobile, which both operate on the AWS band same as the T-Mobile version. Regardless though, you will still be able to use voice text and data on Rogers, Telus, Bell, Fido, Koodo, and Virgin. Rogers and Fido support 2g data for the nexus s while telus and bell have no 2g network since they recently changed to HSDPA (sim cards) so they don't have the network that Rogers/Fido had built years ago. I'm using my unlocked European HTC Desire on Rogers and it is definately usable on 2G Edge. Speeds aren't impressive, 0.20 MB/S to be exact most of the times but at the same time, I've tried on my friend's phone with 3g support for rogers and they could only reach speeds of 0.20-0.40 MB/S which is fairly disgusting. Webbrowsing, facebook, are all fine to use. One note is that youtube/video will NOT load as they take atleast 10min to buffer and usually will say unable to play video.

That being said, the nexus s will most likely get an AT&T version because of the exclusivity to T-MOBILE at the moment. If they don't, get the T-MOBILE Nexus S if you really want. If its a great phone to buy (not that I can recommend due to the horrifying construction of the body and I hate Samsung in general) then purchase it by all means.

Hope this helped

No you will not lol. As i stated before Telus, Bell (Koodo & Virgin) have only an HSPA + Network. No Edge, GPRS so you will not even get a signal on a device that does not have 850/1900 UMTS bands.

They only have an HSPA network because they were CDMA until October 2009 when they launched the HSPA Network. They are now launching Dual Carrier HSPA+ ( 42 Mbps ) and slowly going to LTE. So why would they need a gprs/edge network when they're HSPA network already is 3x the size of Rogers 2g network.