They’ve just announced a successful live trial of the upcoming 4G network. Interestingly, the reason why they’re interested in building out an LTE network is not for the faster web experience; it’s to provide the exclusive North American introduction of “HD Voice.”

“Our ability to deliver HD Voice before any other carrier in North America and to test LTE are examples of the technologies WIND is uniquely positioned to offer as we continue to advance our network to the next evolution of mobile network technology,” said Wind CEO Ken Campbell.

When you can’t be the first to market with LTE, you might as well be first to market with something that no one has ever heard of… then again, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Canada’s Big Three starting using this terminology too. HD Voice is supposed to provide “improved audio quality and the reduction of background noise.”

Interestingly enough, Wind is saying LTE is for more than phones and tablets; they want to see it in cameras, car, appliances, and “other everyday devices” too.

Mobilicity CEO Dave Dobbin (remember when it was going to be called DAVE Wireless?) has officially confirmed that the Gingerbread-flavored Android phone will indeed be crossing the 49th parallel and joining the shelves at Mobilicity in March. This sounds easy enough, since the current Nexus S is already of the AWS variety that plays nice with Mobilicity’s network.

What about the folks rocking WCDMA 850/1900? Interestingly enough, Dave also mentioned that the Nexus S is also coming to Canada via Bell, Telus, and Rogers. This means that a more typical “NAM” version of the Nexus S is also in the works, but no precise timeline was provided for this variant. For Americans, this means that they may soon have Nexus S with AT&T too.

Curiously left out of the mix is the juggernaut among new Canadian entrants, Wind Mobile. It’s possible that this other AWS Canadian carrier is picking up the Nexus S too, but they’re also just as happy if you buy an unlocked model to go their way too. After all, they never officially carried the Nexus One either.

[Mobile Crunch via Howard Forums]

The first time I heard about this story, my assumption was that you would get some long distance minutes tacked onto your monthly plan for free when you sign up for service with Wind Mobile. That’s not the case. Instead, customers can waltz into Wind “mobile phone booths” and make a long distance call in the store.

You don’t sign a contract. You don’t agree to sign up for service. You just ask to use the phone the same way you would when your regular cell phone runs out of juice and you ask the local diner if you can borrow the phone to call a cab. The kicker is that Wind is a-okay with you doing long distance on that free call… for up to five minutes.

This free service is being offered in Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver, which presumably also includes the Wind kiosks inside of Blockbuster locations. These same stores are also offering a gift wrapping service too. I wonder how they’d feel about wrapping up a shiny new Telus phone for your cousin?

Wind Mobile is doing some pretty cool things when it comes to rate plans and add-ons, but the hardware offerings can leave a little to be desired. No one really wanted that Huawei U8100 to satisfy their Android cravings, so along came the Motorola XT720.

The guys over at MobileSyrup have posted a hands-on video with the Anroid 2.1 device, including a feature walkthrough and a YouTube streaming test. It looks like a pretty nice piece of kit, but it’s almost like every other Android-powered touchscreen-only smartphone these days. Where’s the personality?   The YouTube video stream took some time to buffer, but I guess that’s the norm with a lot of devices these days. It’s too bad that they had to hide the microSD card slot under the battery cover, though, since accessibility on the side would have been so much more functional. I’m also partial to hardware keyboards, but that’s just a personal preference thing.

As a quick refresher, features include the 3.7-inch WVGA TFT touchscreen, 512MB internal memory, 8MP camera with 720p video, and a $430 asking price through Wind after $20 rebate.

Orascom Telecom Holdings of Egypt happens to be one of the biggest investors in Wind Mobile and Naguib Sawiris is the company’s executive chairman. In a recent interview with the Globe and Mail, he says that Bell, Telus and Rogers are “a joke” and that they’re not worth investing in because they’re “too big” and “too slow.” That’s why he wanted to invest in Wind instead.

Interestingly, Sawiris says that he has been “offered by two of them to buy me out at a very significant profit, but that means I’m a broker, not an industrialist. It’s against my saga, against my history. I’m not the kind of guy who goes out for the money. It’s about success. And this, I would consider it as a bribe.”

He doesn’t want to be bought out, but he’s not opposed to doing some buying out of his own. IN fact, he says that it is inevetible that Wind will acquire other newcomers Public Mobile and Mobilicity. He views Wind as the “consolidator of all the smaller players.”

Wow. Bold words.

Canada is a telecom backwater, says bold backer of Wind Mobile [CTV News]

The features are pretty standard fare for an Android phone; with quick access to Google applications, Google Maps with GPS, and a customizable main screen. The specs aren’t the best with just a 3.2MP camera and QVGA display, but it is cheap, and it comes with Android 2.1 out of the box.

Photo: Wind’s 8100 will be available only in Black.

[Wind]

The conversation was moderated by Marlow and attended by Wind Mobile CEO Ken Campbell, Rogers EVP of Marketing John Boynton, and Mobilicity President and CEO Dave Dobbin. They talk about unlocking phones, spectrum caps, customer loyalty, bundling, and the recent spectrum auction.

In the video clip below, you can see how they responded when asked about how Canada can (or cannot) support multiple carriers with a smaller population compared to larger markets like the United States. Wind appeared to be the most optimistic of the three.

[Mobile Syrup]

New $35 unlimited data plan offered by Wind Mobile

Wind Mobile has been aggressively marketing in the cities that it serves, but some people may say that their services are still too expensive. Well, it seems that a few more data plan options are just over the horizon.  If you were to go to the Wind Mobile website today, you’d see that there is just one data add-on option. That’s the infinite mobile for $35.00 a month, offering “unlimited” Internet access on your smartphone while in any Wind Home Zone. What if you don’t need that much data?

There’s no saying when (or even if) these new data plans take effect, but they are certainly more affordable. On the BlackBerry front, you can downsize to the $20/month Charged BlackBerry plan for 500MB of data or the $10/month Social BlackBerry plan for unlimited IM, Facebook, and MySpace. (No mention of BBM, Wind?)

For non-BlackBerry devices, you can similarly get the $20/month Charged option for 500MB or the $10/month Social option for 50MB of mobile Internet data. Personally, this last option sounds the best for the average “light” user (i.e., me). Other carriers, like Rogers and Telus, don’t offer a data plan of less than $25/500MB aside from the messaging-only options. For ten bucks, I get my basic mobile data fix (and I save $15 over the competition).

Huawei U1250 bargain phone from Wind Mobile

It’s one of those things that becomes a double-edged sword. On the one hand, Wind Mobile doesn’t want to lock you down to a lengthy contract. On the other hand, this means that they don’t offer hardware subsidies. So, what do you do?

You sell a cheapass phone, of course! If you want to get into the Wind Mobile action and don’t want to break the bank, you might want the Huawei U1250. Unlike the $450 they want for the BlackBerry Bold 9700, the Huawei U1250 is just $70. Not surprisingly, this cheaper phone is on the more entry-level end of the spectrum. There’s no QWERTY keyboard or touchscreen display. There is no app store or accelerometer. It is just seventy bucks, after all. What do you expect?  It almost looks like an old Nokia design that never saw the light of day.

What you do get with the U1250 is a 2-inch QVGA display, 2-megapixel camera, 3.5mm audio jack, microSD slot, dedicated music buttons, and a relatively slim profile. It’s not exciting, but it’ll suit the no-frills consumer that just needs a phone to be a phone.

Nokia 5230 lands at Wind Mobile

Earlier this week the Nokia 5230 was revealed and suspected to be making its way over to Wind Mobile in Canada “soon” and with that, we would probably expect it in a “few weeks.” As it turns out, these weeks turned into days.  Wind Mobile has officially launched the Nokia 5230. The best part is that they’re keeping the price a lot lower than most people would expect for a brand new touchscreen smartphone. The Nokia 5230 can be yours for $180. That’s outright without a contract.

Even at this lower price point, the Nokia 5230 still gives you plenty to enjoy. There’s the 640 x 360 resistive touchscreen display, 3.5mm headphone jack, aGPS, and two-megapixel camera, all wrapped up in a Symbian S60 5th Edition user interface.

As if the $180 price tag wasn’t appealing enough, you should also remember that Wind is offering you a $150 bonus credit if you switch over from the big three. That promo lasts until the end of the month.