iPhone for all

From a press release issued earlier today, we’ve learned that Canadian iPhone users will have the option of choosing either Rogers or Fido as their service provider. It appears that we’ll have a choice of carriers come July 11th, each with their respective pros and cons. This is not much of a surprise considering both brands share networks and are owned by the same company. Handset pricing will the same $199/$299.

Apple ruined the surprise on Monday- several days before this latest press release- by disclosing that iPhone will be sold in Canada at Fido stores and at Rogers stores, implying both companies would have iPhone and data plans available. Rate plan pricing has still not been released.

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It is interesting to note that one feature many watchers have been calling for is the ability to make calls from their iPhones over wifi networks.  Fido’s new “Uno” service that lets users with select WiFi-enabled handsets make unlimited local calls while on their wireless network at home.  With the release of the iPhone SDK, many developers wondered whether they would be able to write software to take advantage of the handset’s WiFi connection to make unlimited in a similar manner to Fido’s Uno option.  Apple has previously said that they will not permit developers to offer this type of software but, to our knowledge, no other carrier has had this option already in place and promoted it heavily.  We’re interested to see if iPhone will be Uno-compatible.

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