Provided you've settled on color and storage capacity, In the U.S., you've only got two choices if you're hunting for an LTE-enabled new iPad. In Canada, things are a bit more complicated. During Apple's event yesterday, Rogers, Bell, and TELUS, the big three service providers up here in Canada, featured prominently. Two LTE models would be launched to make sure every able carrier would be able to offer LTE, though there's lots of 3G compatibility for elsewhere, too. The new iPad lands in Canada on March 16, and no doubt many are wondering which carrier they should go with for data service. We've chewed through the plans and coverage, and have a fairly definitive answer.

There are two caveats, mind you. For one, we don't have a lot of data on speed comparisons. You'll want to ask around to see who's offering better speeds in your area. Secondly, we're assuming that The Big Three won't be switching up their iPad plans before launch day, which is entirely possible. The new iPad is big enough that there could be promotions across the board, so make sure to double-check before committing.

LTE availability

In Canada, those LTE centres are still fairly limited, which actually makes your pick of carriers for the new iPad a lot easier. Bell and TELUS share their LTE network, so coverage will be fairly interchangable between them. They've got LTE in Toronto and the surrounding area, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Yellowknife, Quebec City, and smaller regions like Belleville, Cambridge, Waterloo, Guelph, Hamilton, Dartmouth and London. By comparison, Rogers only covers  Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa. Rogers did recently expand to St. John's, Newfoundland, and they're expecting to cover Halifax in the next couple of months, but on the whole, Bell and TELUS have a distinct edge on coverage. It's also worth noting that Bell and TELUS are supporting dual-cell HSPA+, which means you might still be able to get up to 42 Mbps outside of LTE areas. What about pricing?

Pricing plans

Rogers offers similar fixed and flex plans. For $15/month, you get 250 MB, and for $35/month, you get 5 GB, which is way better than TELUS's stand-alone static tablet plans. The Flex plans for Rogers iPads are a little weird, since they've kindly bundled in all of the taxes in with the fees; I guess they're worried about getting dinged by the CRTC for misleading prices like Bell did in June. For $6.93/month, you get 10 MB, which is bumped up to $16.93/month for up to 250 MB if you go over, $21.93/month for 500 MB after that, and $36.93 for 5 GB and $0.02/MB after that. So the flex pricing on Rogers is pretty much identical to TELUS, except for the different $10 tier has been bumped up to $25 for a bit more data. Rogers also offers shareable data add-ons for smartphones that are separate from their usual offerings (though no more expensive);  you get 1 GB across both devices for $30/month, 3 GB for $45/month, and $60/month for 6 GB. The sneaky part here is that it looks like you wouldn't be able to access LTE if you opt for the bottom-tier plan, which is downright dirty. Bell and TELUS don't mention anything about this, so I can only hope that they aren't doing anything similar.

With all of that said, I would have to side with TELUS if I was buying one of the new iPads with LTE. They've got the broadest national coverage, the best spread in flex rates and free sharing of data with smartphones. Obviously, if you're in St. John's, you'll pretty much be forced to go with Rogers, but for everyone else in Canada, it should be a pretty clear decision.

AT&T has been offering iPhone 3GS 8GB at $49 lately but Bell and Telus in Canada now have it on sale for $0 for a limited time. Sure it comes with a typically ridiculous 3-year contract, sure you can get the much better iPhone 4 on sale on the same networks for $159, sure you can get an unlocked iPhone 3GS straight from Apple for $549, but if you absolutely, positively have to have an iPhone for FREE (with contract!) get on over to Bell or Telus before the sale ends.

Anyone think iPhone 3GS at $0 is compelling? Want it on your network?

[Bell and Telus]

Are recent iPhone reception problems on Rogers Canada the result of Bell and Telus putting up "dummy" HSPA towers? That's what a Rogers rep told one customer who complained about calls cutting in and out for the last couple of weeks.

I apologize for the inconvenience that is happening with you're iphone. It is probable due to the new hspa dummy towers being put up by other carriers that it is interfering with you're signal. So I would advise to manually select the rogers network instead of the phone doing an automatic selection which it does by default. To manually connect on an iphone do the following. On the phone go to 'settings' then go to 'carriers' uncheck automatic and only select rogers from that list.

I've been having similar problems, only while in the western part of downtown Montreal, and also only for the last two weeks, and I know of almost a half-dozen others with the same problem in the same area.

Are dummy HSPA towers a likely explanation? We'll give Rogers' proposed solution a try and get back to you. If you've been having the same problem, let us know if it works, or if you have other ideas.

Telus looks to be launching the iPhone along with their new GSM/HSPA network on November 5, 2009, with BGR reporting pricing that's pretty much spot on standard:

same as it is for Rogers (and Bell, for that matter) with the 3G going for $99.99/$599.99 and the 16 and 32GB 3GS going for $199.99/$699.99 and $299.99/$799.99.

And Telus has dropped their presser to make it all nice and official like.

So, any Canadians been waiting for their iPhone on Telus?

[via BGR, and congrats on the new site look!]

TiPb, among others, has been hearing rumors for months now that Bell and Telus' new GSM-based HSPA+ network would be up and running by November, and that the iPhone would follow along immediately there after. Nice to see some confirmation via Canadian stalwart, the Globe and Mail, however:

Bell announced Monday that it will launch national service in November on the $1-billion next-generation wireless network it has been building with Telus, months ahead of schedule. The project extends the two companies' existing third-generation (3G) networks to include the same technology standard employed by Rogers, the nation's largest cellphone company.

No comments from any of the carriers or Apple, of course, and it remains to be seen what if any downward pressure competition in Canada -- like in the UK -- would put on iPhone pricing for consumers.

Our question: Bell and Telus will have HSPA+ but no EDGE (to our knowledge), so if an iPhone on Bell or Telus couldn't get a 3G signal, what exactly would it fall back on? EVDO/CDMA is not an option...

BGR served up a rumor that Telus in Canada was getting the iPhone 3GS in October. How will a CDMA carrier get the GSM iPhone? Simple, as mentioned last year, Telus has partnered with Bell to expand their CDMA network by adding in HSPA. That means Bell Mobility could support the iPhone 3GS as well, and the rumor's TiPb's hearing is they just might (though exact timing will of course depend on how fast they get HSPA up and running).

If Rogers/Fido's Canadian iPhone 3GS exclusivity was tied only to their GSM monopoly, and that suddenly becomes an oligopoly, will the increased competition lead to better iPhone plans and prices for Canadian consumers? Well, oligopolies are historically only slightly better than monopolies, so we won't get our hopes up any time soon.

So Canadians, anyone rather have their iPhone on Telus or Bell?

Like much of the rest of the world, iPhones remain in short supply in Canada and with 20 more countries launching in a few weeks, its hard to imagine that changing anytime soonish. (Though if you visit Apple's newly launched, and first Canadian Flagship Store in Montreal, they'll have live music, let you play with demos, and learn tips from the Apple Specialists, b'okay?)

So what is changing then? Only the very fabric of the industry it seems. See, Canada has only one national GSM provider: Rogers (who owns the brand Fido as well). The other two national carriers, Bell and Telus, use the same technology as Verizon in the US, the incompatible CDMA... Or at least they did... Our publicly owned television network, CBC is now reporting that Bell and Telus may just be switching teams, either to Wideband CDMA or HSPA, in order to better compete in a world dominated by GSM and touting sexy handsets like the iPhone 3G.

What would this mean for Canadians? Competition (which hopefully translates into competitive pricing):

Multiple iPhone carriers would likely be music to the ears of the more than 50,000 people who signed an online petition against Rogers' rates ahead of the device's launch on July 11. Australia, with its three carriers including Telstra, has some of the lowest prices on the device in the world, according to CBCNews.ca's iPhone iNdex. Switzerland, with two iPhone carriers, also ranks well in pricing. Rogers' iPhone, meanwhile, ranks roughly in the middle of the pack in terms of monthly pricing but is the second-most expensive in the world in terms of total commitment by virtue of its mandatory three-year contract, the longest offered by any carrier in any country.

Oh my, but wouldn't that make things ever so suddenly interesting?