Canada, HSDPA. What's the first carrier that comes to mind? No, not Fido, silly -- Rogers, of course! Makes a lot of sense, then, that Canada's GSM behemoth would be getting dibs on RIM's HSDPA-compatible hotness, the Bold -- not to say we didn't expect it, anyway -- and a new page posted over on Rogers' site encourages interested individuals to sign up to be notified when the device becomes available in their neck of the woods. Unfortunately, there's nary a clue here on exactly when Rogers customers will be able to mosey into the store of their choice and pick one up, but "summer" is a safe (and vague) bet.

[Thanks, Gurkiran]

Get this: the first North American carrier to offer up Nokia's 8GB N95 isn't AT&T. Heck, it's not even a US-based operator. No friends, it's Canada's own Rogers Wireless. Just as we had heard late last month, the N95 8GB has officially landed in the Great North, and starting on May 6th, consumers up that way will be able to secure one for a hefty $399.99 with a three-year activation on the Rogers Vision Unlimited On-Device Mobile Browsing Plan. Don't weep too heavily, AT&T users -- your time should be coming soon.

It seemed like it would never happen, but the impossible has occurred: Apple's iPhone is coming to Canada. The news was quietly slipped into telecom giant Rogers' latest earnings report, with the simple statement that the company was "thrilled to announce" a "deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year." Apparently, lips are sealed on all other details, but we'll keep you posted as news gets our way.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

For a phone that came out in 2006, it's kinda surprising how much interest (both from carriers and end users) that the Nokia N95 series continues to enjoy. With any luck, we'll be seeing it launch on AT&T later this year -- but Rogers is apparently poised to beat 'em to the punch. Mobile In Canada reports that Canada's 800-pound GSM behemoth intends to launch the N95 (the North American, non-8GB model, as far as we can tell) as early as May 2nd -- which, alongside the already-launched Sony Ericsson K850i, makes for a powerful one-two combo of 5 megapixel 3G Europhones. Only time will tell, but we're feeling good about this one, folks; only question is, N95 8GB next?

Just days after Telus picked up the attractive LG Venus, the carrier has officially started offering up the Motorola Mike i877. The half-rugged, half-sleek looking flip phone was designed by Pininfarina and features integrated Bluetooth, a multimedia player (MP3, AAC, WMA), microSD expansion slot, miniUSB port, 1.3-megapixel camera, VibraCall, a digital voice recorder and the obligatory push-to-talk support. If it floats your boat, you can snag it now sans contract for $349.99, or anywhere between $149.99 to $299.99 if you're cool with signing the dotted line for varying lengths of time.

[Via MobileInCanada]

In case you hadn't noticed, Virgin Mobile rocks an ever-so-slightly higher end lineup north of the border than it does in the US, and to that end, it's just released the RAZR 2 V9m. We all know the drill here by now: 2 inch external QVGA display with music controls, 2.2 inch internal QVGA display, stereo Bluetooth, EV-DO, microSD expansion, and a 2 megapixel camera, all of which are ready to sit just above the KRZR in Virgin's stable. Grab it now for $149 CAD (about $147) on a three-year deal.

[Via Mobile In Canada]

Strong work, Telus! First you guys are pretty much on the ball with your release of the BlackBerry 8330 Curve and the Motorola Q9c, and now you've become the first Canadian carrier to offer the LG Venus -- and you're clearly reveling in it, too, since you point out on your product page that this is actually LG's first touchscreen phone in all of Canada. $99.99 CAD (about $100) of your customer's hard-earned savings is going to net them a 2 megapixel camera, QVGA primary display, microSD slot, GPS, EV-DO, and stereo Bluetooth, so we'd say you've done good -- for the moment, anyway. Keep up the strong work.

[Thanks, Jesse]

Far be it from Bell to sit back and let Telus have all the fun, the other Canadian CDMA juggernaut has gone ahead and added RIM's BlackBerry Curve 8330 to its roster as well. This one will run between $249.95 CAD and $549.95 CAD (ouch!) ranging from a three-year plan to an outright, free and clear purchase, offering a 2 megapixel cam, 96MB of onboard storage with a microSD slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, EV-DO, and GPS -- in other words, precisely everything you'll get from its Telus, Sprint, and Verizon cousins. Head down to the shop, do a little dance of joy, and revel in your little jump start here, Bell users, because your American friends have a few more weeks to wait on this one.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

There are certain phones that seem to have the uncanny ability to unite a fabulous cross section of carriers across North America, and these two are clearly headed in that direction. Telus way up there in Canada has launched the Motorola Q9c and announced the eventual availability of the BlackBerry Curve 8330, giving it a power pack of smartphones embraced by a good number of CDMA cousins to the south. Both devices offer EV-DO data and Bluetooth; the Curve offers up GPS and a 2 megapixel camera, while the Windows Mobile 6-based Q9c makes do with a 1.3 megapixel sensor -- but offers the key bonus of being available immediately for $149.99 CAD on a three-year deal. No release date or pricing for the Curve has been announced.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read - Motorola Q9c
Read - BlackBerry Curve

It turns out that AT&T won't be the only network picking up the Americanized version of LG's Prada -- the blacked-out, touch-tastic Vu -- come this May; Rogers wants in on the action up north of the border, too, and they'll be keeping pace with their GSM brethren below the St. Lawrence by launching the phone in the very same time frame. We can only assume that Rogers will be launching the CU915 variant (or TU915, as it'll probably come to be known to them) since the carrier doesn't feature a MediaFLO network that would warrant the need for the CU920's additional hardware and expense. As we already know, the phone will feature a 2 megapixel camera, HSDPA, microSD expansion, and it comes as no surprise that the phone will support access to the full host of Rogers' media services. It looks like pricing will be announced closer to launch, but you might want to just start putting away the occasional dollar now, because this one ain't exactly going out the door free on contract if you catch our drift.

[Via Mobile In Canada]

As expected, Telus has rolled out its young, fresh, "fat-free" (their words, not ours) Koodo Mobile brand this week, targeting Canadians looking for a no-frills way to get wireless on the cheap. In light of all the unlimited action we've seen stateside as of late, we're not necessarily blown away by the offerings -- but $65 CAD for 1000 minutes plus unlimited incoming calls, 50 text messages, and per-second billing is alright... we guess. The phone selection is positively barebones, too, reflecting the mantra of the company itself; buyers can choose from a Samsung U410 for $75, a Motorola KRZR for $200, and a W385 -- also from Moto -- for $125. Any Canadians want to chime in here? Is this a blessing, or a Telus-backed fleece?

[Via Howard Chui]

It looks like our friends to the north are getting hooked up with another wireless choice later today -- sorta. Just like Fido is little more than a discount outlet for daddy Rogers, it seems that "Koodo Mobile" will be launching under the Telus umbrella offering plans as low as $15 CAD per month, per-second billing, and at least some contract-free offerings. Oh, and Koodo's catchy tagline? "Good call." How creative!

[Via Textually]

We're going to resist digging deep into our secret stash of yak jokes here and just concentrate on the facts: Canada's Yak Communications, a division of a larger telecom outfit Globalive, has formally submitted paperwork to get in on Canada's upcoming spectrum auction. The auction's a pretty big deal -- T-Mobile's name has been thrown around as a possible entrant -- because as Yak points out, only three companies currently own the entirety of Canada's national cellular airwaves, leaving plenty of room for improvement in the competition department. Yak's whole deal appears to be centered around a contract-free approach, something that could come as a refreshing change of pace in a country where three-year contracts are more the rule than the exception. The auction kicks off toward the end of May, and in the meantime, feel free to post yak humor of your very own (of the clean sort, of course) in comments.

[Via Mobile In Canada]

With the 8130 and the 8830 already in Telus' BlackBerry lineup, the natural next step for any CDMA carrier to take is to launch the recently-spied CDMA Curve, of course. Indeed, it looks like Telus is stepping up to the plate and doing the right thing here, thanks to a sharp-eyed HowardForums member who captured a shot of Telus' site showing the 8330 on sale for $199.99 CAD (about $203) on a three-year contract. 'Course, like a mirage, the mysterious 8330 vanished into thin air -- its time hasn't come yet -- but we expect it'll be back in the mix in short order now.

Separately, we've heard from another tipster that both the Curve and a Samsung U720 can be found in metadata associated with Telus' media player. What's the U720, you ask? We're not sure, but they're calling it the "Flipper" and it looks suspiciously like Verizon's U740, alias "Alias." No word yet on when exactly the Canadian carrier will commit to putting these new pieces up on its site for keeps.

[Thanks, Tal and John]