Is (Telus) HSPA+ GSM compatible?

March 2, 2014 2:22 PM

I'm dealing with a quad band device for a customer that works with a standard GSM SIM card. They are trying to use a SIM from Telus in Canada. They have a SIM from Telus inside the device, but it's not working.

The customer contacted Telus and Telus claimed they "don't do GSM anymore, just HSPA+". My understanding is that HSPA is associated with GSM networks, and so it should work. This device doesn't even use data, just voice and SMS.

Is my understanding correct? Should this GSM device work on Telus?

posted by nrobertson to Technology (1 answer total)

No, Telus (and Koodoo) don't do plain-vanilla GSM. Neither does Bell (and Virgin). They went from CDMA to HSPA+ & LTE. No 1G or 2G GSM. I don't think they ever did GSM.

Only Rogers & Fido do 'normal' GSM. Some of the newer guys might as well (Wind?).

Does the device in question do HSPA or LTE? If not, you're probably better off going to one of the smaller carriers and getting a SIM. Like SpeakOut (which uses the Rogers network): http://www.speakout7eleven.ca/
posted by MiG at 3:14 PM on March 2, 2014