So the cat’s out of the bag on new networks for both TELUS and Bell this November. Talk about the worst kept secret in Canadian mobility! It seems like it was over a year ago (it was) when savvy mobile users started picking up the first traces of a non-Rogers HSPA network.

Of course the ground breaking announcement was: we’ve finally got iPhones! Please but them from us! Which is both great and terrible for Canadian smartphoner customers.

It’s great to see that the GSM stranglehold has been broken.

It’s not so great that Canadians are putting all their Smartphone eggs in one basket. Between BlackBerry, Android, Windows Mobile, and Pre there is a huge landscape of smartphonex that offer so much to Canadian smartphone users. Carriers need to market them in order to avoid an Apple hammer lock on the industry (and this is coming from a devoted Mac user!)

The other obligation here is for Handset vendors to ensure that their hardware and software is up to par when it comes to taking on Apple. Everyone’s making strides. Let’s hope they can keep up.