Aside from the 7130e, Telus has not offered a new(er) version of the Blackberry for quite some time. What about the 8707v I've been reading about, or the 8702 for that matter. Aside from the 8702, have they not been out for a while now?

The Canadian carriers have a very poor selection of Blackberry's compared to the US carriers. I want to see an expanded selection of Blackberry's and would like Telus to come out with a new 8700 at the very least. Anyone else deal with Telus and would like to see a newer version of the Blackberry being offered?

Nick

Nickster
I tend to agree. The 7520 is an extremely useful tool for my work as I use the 2-way a lot but I don't think they can squeeze the MIKE into an 8700. I'm not a huge fan of the 71xx series with the Smart type. As you're in BC Telus is big there and out here in the East coast they need to expand their coverage more than their BB line of products.

Nickster - you may be a bit confused. The 8707v just came out, is UMTS and will not work in North America. Much less on CDMA that Telus uses.

I've never heard of an 8702.

tHE 8702 IS THE cdma version of the 8700 that Sprint is testing.

Oh - that rumor! Has anyone actually seen one?

ahhh another variation of the sprint/verison/nextel 8700 thread.... i THOUGHT things were slowing down

Telus currently offers the latest BB versions that are available for North America on the CDMA and iDEN networks. Don't expect to see any new BB's until at least Q4 and I wouldn't even hold my breath for that timeline.

Every BB offered in the US is available here...

According to my Telus rep, the 8700 should be available within a couple months...The fact that Telus is so far behing Rogers in Canada pisses me off...The new Pearl...which I would not get simpply because of the keyboard, is going to Rogers exclusively for 1 year in Canada...so it should be available through Telus in Sep/Oct 2007...

My cousin who has worked at Rim for several years, always has the latest b4 they come out...he has had the Pearl for 6 months...So I always get to see what is coming before it comes...The 8700, I saw for the first time, Summer 2005...so the fact that I have to wait so long for Telus to catch up is maddening...Oh well, it will be here soon!

I'm not exactly a Telus fan-boy, but let's be reasonable here. GSM carriers will always get devices in their hands and out the door long before CDMA carriers. The licensing and production costs are considerably higher for CDMA (and it's controlled stringently) which results in the delay in release from Roger's to Telus/Bell (and likewise, Cingular to Verizon/T-Mobile).

You should only complain when Verizon/T-Mobile release devices that are not available through Telus which, to be fair, rarely happens. Now, iDEN-enabled BB's on Mike? That's a whole different story. The lag between Nextel and Telus is considerable and one that always pisses me off.

T-Mobile is GSM, like Cingular. Verizon and Sprint are CDMA carriers in the US.

Oh? Wow. T-Mo takes a long time to release devices. I just always assumed it was because they were a CDMA provider. Good to know.

"The Canadian carriers have a very poor selection of Blackberry's compared to the US carriers"-nickster

I dont really agree. Rogers will always get the current models of bb around the same time as us carriers. we tend to get them right after the 1st US carrier (within weeks, just depends on how the want to roll out the devices) and MUCH MUCh before the 2nd or 3rd carrier picks up the device in the states becuase the 1st company usually as an exclusive on it.

Rim has always had a solid relationship with Rogers, heck they were one of the 1st to pick up the the blackberry concept. and Rim has been very loyal to Rogers

BINGO and BINGO was his name OH...

Its not that Canadian providers have less of a selection, its due to your provider being cdma. Few and far between manufactures, providers want to have anything to do with qualcomm and cdma. cdma always has, and always will have less of a device selection.

Yep.. and telus will be bought by Bell..

Well, you may be right. I see that Bell now offers the 8703e, so I wrote Telus asking when they expect the 8703e will be available to their subscribers. I also said that I would change Carriers if they had no date in mind. I haven't heard back from them as yet , but in a week or so I will do just that...change to Bell Canada if Telus cannot come out with the hardware.

subsitute one poor alternative for another.... tisk tisk.

I asked this before, but didn't get an answer. Is there a Telus insider here that can give us a date when the 8703e is coming to Telus? I mean, Bell has it now, so it can't be a technical issue. Anyone have some more details?

That only leaves me with Roger's and I've already tried them...with the 8700r, but the coverage where I live is very poor with Rogers. Bell uses the Telus towers, so their coverage (better than Roger's) is the same as Telus. I am caught between a rock and hard place unfortunately.

I wrote Telus asking them that very question, and here is what they had to say:

"Thank you for your e-mail regarding TELUS new hardware launches inquiry.
In regards to your inquiry, please note that TELUS is continually working with manufacturers to introduce the best new wireless handsets and products. Due to the competitive nature of the wireless industry, we do not discuss future hardware launch plans with the general public. We do test products to satisfy different market segments, but we do not release details about any potential products until their commercial launch."