Telus debuts iPhone, Android phone

Telus Mobility on Thursday became the third Canadian cellphone company to offer Apple's iPhone and hasadded an Android phone to its lineup.

Telus unveiled a new line of phones that will work on its new HSPA network, including the iPhone and the HTC Hero, a smartphone that runs Google's Android operating system.

In addition to Telus's own retail locations, Black's Photo stores will sell the company's camera phones across Canada starting Thursday. Telus bought the company in September.

Bell and Telus jointly built the new HSPA network, which they say is capable of data transfer speeds up to 21 megabits per second, at a cost of $1 billion.

The price of the iPhone on Telus is the same as those offered by competitors Bell and Rogers. The iPhone 3GS with 16 GB of memory was available for $199 on a mandatory three-year contract, while the 32 GB version was $299.

Telus sells the HTC Hero for $99 on a three-year contract. The Hero is a touch-screen smartphonethatlacks the physical keyboard seen on other Android phones, such as Rogers's HTC Dream and the new Motorola Droid, which is available only in the U.S.

The smartphone rate plans on Telus start at $50. Telus eliminated its system access and 911 fees last week.

The $50 plan includes 150 voice minutes, free evenings and weekends starting at 9 p.m., and 500 MB of data usage. Options on that plan include unlimited calling and text to five local numbers, double the voice minutes, or unlimited incoming text messages.