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No it won't. Any international 3G format phone won't work with Telus' network. WCDMA is the 3G standard found in Europe and Asia only. The GSM portion will work on Rogers/Fido but it'll be very slow and the coverage will be unlreliable.
CDMA is being phased out. That's the really old standard. If you can find one that does LTE and it's the normal bands/frequencies Telus uses, you may get lucky. Most cheap phones that are unlocked are generally not compatible with north american networks. The only cheaper, unlocked, android phone that I know works is the Google Nexus 5. ($350 from Google directly unlocked)
@Nighthawk it's WCDMA which is the same as HSPA.
TELUS/Bell/Rogers all use 850/1900mHz for their 3G networks. It may work, but only on certain towers, and there is no way to determine what frequency the towers use in your area.
WCDMA is not the same as HSPA. WCDMA is considered 3G and HSPA is 3.5G. Different specs though HSPA is supposed to be backward compatible. Not the other way around. There is a reason cell manufacturers list WCDMA and HSPA separately on the specs. I have a phone that is WCDMA 850//2100 compatible and it won't work with any north american carrier except on old GSM. Go overseas and it hits 3G flawlessly and works fine. Telus has 2100MHz as LTE. HSPA+ 850/1900.
If the device was listed as WCDMA 850/1900 there is a microscopic possibility it may work, though not very likely.
It will work on the 850 bands (So Saskatchewan West...) not so much in the eastern part of the country where they usually are on the 1900Mhz frequency..
Here' s a map where you can check
http://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html
I've purchased the phone and it's working fine for me in Sask, a great phone w/ an amazing battery..
Does it actually get proper 3G and the speeds?
Speeds range from 2.77 Mbps to 9.22 Mbps
Unfortunately I have a fair by my house going on the past week and the amount of people have dramatically increased so the local cell towers are overly busy...
http://i.imgur.com/X9puW1a.jpg
"WCDMA is not the same as HSPA. WCDMA is considered 3G and HSPA is 3.5G."
Actually, that's not quite correct either.
- WCDMA is an interface protocol
- UTMS is one of telephony standards that uses WCDMA as the transmission protocol
- HSPA is the enhancement to data transmission portion of UTMS
Those 3/3.5/4G terms are more for marketing than anything else.