Bell & Telus have just completed construction of their billion dollar HSPA+ network, thus promising to deliver much needed GSM competition in Canada. For Bell & Telus, completion of this network is equivalent to gaining First Strike capabilities in a nuclear war, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t screw things up. Here are 5 things Bell & Telus should do to capitalize on it’s new network:

1. Make sure it’s RELIABLE
   Pretty damn common sense stuff here, but if launch day comes and 100k+ customers decide to switch to your network and everyone gets 0 bars, you can rest assured that Rogers will maintain it’s power on the industry. Bell doesn’t have the greatest reputation for reliability at the moment, so failing to do this would reinforce the idea that you guys don’t care (but you do right?). By the way, this point extends to customer support. Stop routing me to India goddammit, they have no clue why I’m having outages IN CANADA.
2. Offer a good data + voice plan for $50 or under
   This plan doesn’t have to be amazing, but should have about 250 minutes, 2GB of data, unlimited text messages, E+W starting at 6:00pm as well as basic stuff included like caller ID, call waiting and voicemail, something that Rogers makes you pay $15 for. Your other plans should be inline with this one. This plan should be $50 or under AFTER including taxes and fees.  This also brings me to my next point…
3. Remove the system access fee
   Yes, I know, it’s really tough to remove this since it’s basically like getting free money. I mean by definition, don’t we get ACCESS TO THE SYSTEM just by paying the price of the plan? Anyways, get rid of this, it’s such a money grab and people know it.  Oh yea, don’t even try and pass this on to the actual price of the plan like Rogers did.
4. Offer 1 and 2 year contracts rather than just three
   This might run counter-intuitive to getting more customers, but it removes one barrier that might be on customer’s minds. To a lot of people, Bell & Telus wasn’t even a factor to them when choosing a wireless carrier, since CDMA ruled out a lot of choices. Therefore, they don’t really know a lot about your mobile services. Pitching them a three year locked-in contract might turn some people away who are otherwise willing to give you a shot. Rest assured, if everything is well after the first year or two, they’ll stick with you. Also, if you have good plans, they’ll probably choose the three year option anyways, I know I would. Oh yea, make sure you get rid of any activation fees, I mean WHY WOULD YOU CHARGE THEM EXTRA TO SWITCH TO YOUR NETWORK!!!?????? WAIVE IT!
5. Use the Trump Card
   By Trump Card, I’m obviously referring to the iPhone 3Gs. It has the power to make grown men cry, so don’t just do what Rogers is doing, but provide an incentive to buy the phone from you guys. Hint: the iPhone plans for Rogers suck really, really bad.

That’s it for now,  do those 5 things, and your new found weapon will bring in boatloads of customers who are just dying to switch over from the evil Robbers. I know it’s tough, I mean money is good, but market share is more important, so proceed…wisely.