Actually Manitoba will be a mess for some time to come.

Hell will be frozen over before MTS and Telus expand any partnerships. Bell left the parts of Canada west of Ontario to Telus as part of their carving up of Canada so Bell isn't likely to partner with MTS. Bell doesn't really even acknowledge that Ontario (or Canada) extends west of Sault St Marie.

The old Rogers GSM network is not changing in Manitoba so if you have a basic SO GSM phone the partnership between MTS and Rogers will change nothing — you will have coverage of a lot but not all of southern Manitoba, and nothing in the north using the old Rogers GSM network. The coverage goes north as far as Riverton or Ashern in the Interlake and Swan River on the west side. It has major holes here and there along the US border and doesn't cover anything in the extreme south east corner of the province. There are also major gaps here and there in the areas their map says they cover.

My information is that MTS is installing all the new equipment and Rogers customers will roam on it by virtue of the partnership — Rogers only had 3G in Winnipeg and GSM for the rest of their network. MTS 3G phones will be able to roam on the Rogers network outside Manitoba by virtue of the same partnership.

What that will mean for Speakout users using 3G capable phones I don't really know. So far Speakout just uses the Rogers Network as did Rogers — the new Rogers partnerships and roaming arrangements with both MTS and TBayTel in Northern Ontario will add a new dynamic to the equation.

MTS has 1x CDMA coverage of most of the populated areas of Manitoba. The HSPA rollout that is underway will overlay all of that with the HSPA network — and will be accessible from Rogers phones. It won't cover 97% of the province, but it will cover 97% or more of the population and most of the southern highway system. Several northern highways where being able to call for help would be a major advantage still won't be covered.

MTS and Telus have been at each other's throats for some time. MTS cut off data on Telus CDMA phones some time ago — so Telus phones can only access Voice and Text on the MTS CDMA network. I think Bell phones can still access Data — such as it is — the 1xEVDO coverage is extremely limited.

Telus has put up some towers and repeaters in Winnipeg and bought some land in some of the rural areas of the southern province — but there is no sign of construction at any of the proposed sites. So far Telus and Bell 3G phones will only work within the city of Winnipeg. If they expand coverage it will likely be along the Trans Canada highway first.

I don't live in Manitoba any more — but I have family there and reasons to visit regularly. In August last year my Rogers phone switched from 3G to GSM as soon as I left Winnipeg in any direction. In February this year, I had 3G coverage in Brandon and some places along the Trans Canada between Winnipeg and Brandon, so the rollout has been happening as equipment is installed. The target date was March 31 for full rollout. I have heard nothing to say whether they are on schedule or not.

I switched my primary phone from Telus to Rogers last year as this battle was shaping up and I carry a Speakout Phone with a Winnipeg number while visiting Manitoba to avoid the ridiculous long distance charges I was paying with either Telus or Rogers for incoming calls while outside my home area.

A friend in Manitoba sent this to me today:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.c…..48154.html

I would expect your guess is right.

The one exception might be the folks who are using 3G Smartphones on Speakout. The ones you get from the 7-11 store are GSM and none do 3G. Someone who has set up a non Speakout 3G phone to use on Speakout might be able to use the MTS expanded 3G network. Speakout seems to "unofficially" have access to the Rogers 3G network in most of the rest of Canada. (See several threads in this forum about that.) In Manitoba Rogers is providing rural 3g service from their roaming partnership with MTS so the results may be very different. The same will apply when the TBayTel partnership goes on line in Northern Ontario.

If anyone has a 3G phone on Speakout that connects to the 3G network outside Winnipeg, I hope they post their experience here to help others. I may be making a trip to Western Manitoba later this month — I'll post my experiences here once I'm home from the trip if no one else provides an update sooner.

If anyone has success using a 3G phone on Speakout in The Pas, Flin Flon, or Thompson, I hope they post in the forum to let others know.

In theory Rogers could expand their GSM network beyond what it covered before. However they have no reason to do that. The deal with MTS gave their own 3G Rogers phones coverage in a huge amount of area without having to build towers and install radio equipment. They aren't going to build new towers to support an obsolete system in areas where they already have access and coverage on a better system.

MTS is not licensed to use GSM technology so they won't be adding GSM coverage anywhere.

Since my earlier posts, MTS has added a bit more information to their coverage area maps. There are some areas in Manitoba which are not covered by the expanded network but will still have CDMA service.
http://www.mts.ca/file_source/…..lable.html

Those areas don't represent a huge percentage of the provincial population, If I were a betting person, I'd bet that MTS is hoping for some outside funding to provide their system expansion to some if not all of those communities.