Telus Canada considering switch from CDMA to GSM

Link: TheStar.com | Business | Telus considers dumping its `Betamax’ of wireless networks

With more wireless competition looming, executives at Telus Corp. are believed to be mulling a pricey swap of the firm’s network technology in a bid to offer subscribers a bigger selection of mobile devices and grab a larger slice of lucrative international roaming fees.

In the wireless equivalent of moving from Betamax to VHS, Telus executives are considering adopting new technology “as early as this year,” industry sources say. The change would effectively make all or part of Telus’s CDMA network compatible with the GSM-based systems operated by most carriers outside of North America. The two acronyms stand for code division multiple access system, and global system for mobile communications, respectively.

That’d be quite useful for Telus subscribers traveling abroad… but will Telus end up waiting ’til an upgrade to 4G is on the cards?