Oh Canada! Bell and Telus to offer iPhone 3GS in November?

According to the The Globe and Mail, Canadian carriers Bell and Telus will be a few months ahead of schedule in completing the HSPA 3G network they have been working on together. Bell announced yesterday that the network will be finished in November. And what better way to premiere a new GSM pipeline than by offering the iPhone 3GS? The story suggests that Rogers will lose the exclusivity it had in Canada for the device that lasted more than a year. Neither Bell nor Telus would confirm the story and Apple would not comment. According to the report, an announcement of a working arrangement between the three could be made as soon as today or tomorrow with the iPhone set to be offered when the switch to turn on the network is pulled next month.

Bell Mobility President Wade Oosterman would not talk specifically about the iPhone, but he did say, "We have a very strong lineup of manufacturers." He went on to say, "We're goingto expand the options for Canadians. Those that require, for example,international roaming now have a viable alternative." There is no doubt that both Canadian operators are counting on the iPhone to turn things around. For Bell, times are tough and the carrier is desperately seeking new customers. In the second quarter, Bell added 45,000 new accounts while Telus grew by 111,000 members and current iPhone seller Rogers added 142,000 new accounts for the three month period. For Telus, offering Apple's handset should help it reverse a recent decline in average revenue per subscriber, a figure that dropped 7% last quarter.

Apple iPhone 3GS Specifications

source: TheGlobeandMail via BGR