layout: post title: Bell offers flat-rate Global Roaming with a CDMA/GSM phone...at $2.49 per minute! created: 1134698513 categories:

• CDMA
• GSM
• Motorola A840
• Bell
• Canada
• Wireless, Cellular, and Mobile

This is from a December 12th press release:

Bell's new flat-rate global roaming on GSM networks service will cost users $2.49 per minute globally for all in-country and country-to-country calls, including all long-distance charges, offering users a more competitive and simpler price plan for international calling.

GSM? Bell? How is this possible, you're asking yourself (perhaps as you laugh at the ridiculous pricing structure), since Bell's network uses CDMA technology which is incompatible with most of the rest of the world's networks?

Well, I guess they got tired of answering questions about why their phones didn't work in Europe or China or hundreds of other places, so Bell bit the bullet and is now celling a dual-mode CDMA/GSM phone, the Motorola A840. Hmmm...now this is the kind of thing that I *might* like if, say, you could swap out the SIM card and have both a Bell pay-as-you-go plan for places where Rogers/Fido don't have coverage. But, of course, it's all locked in, can only be used with the Bell network, and won't be able to take advantage of cheap local providers by just swapping out the SIM card.

Tell me again why CDMA actually still exists, or why people voluntarily lock themselves in?