With all the commotion about Sprint and US carriers for the Palm Pre 2, it’s easy to forget that Canada was also mentioned as a country that the smartphone will launch in. The big question for us Canadians: which carrier will it be?
Well now, we may have an answer, or at least a hint. Buried deep within the source code of the Pre 2 page on the Palm Canada website, is this commented-out line:
<!–p>The Palm Pre2 phone is available on the Rodger’s network.</p–>
Looks like a misprint of "Roger’s", as in Roger’s Wireless. An easy misprint to make, in what is clearly a line of code commented out for a reason. Only reason that would come to mind, is that an official announcement hasn’t been made yet.
The choice of Roger’s Wireless marks a change from Palm previously choosing Bell to carry their webOS device. Certainly a change that many, such as myself, are welcoming with open arms. Given HP and Palm’s connections with the other Canadian carriers, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Palm Pre 2 comes to other carriers as well.
Of course this one line of commented-out code is hardly a definitive association. It does seems to be unique to the Canadian Pre 2 page though. Hopefully there will be something official soon, ending the mystery. In the meantime, it’s an exciting idea that we may see a Roger’s Wireless webOS device in the near future.
Perhaps just as interesting, Calvin also found a reference to AT&T in another piece of commented-out code:
<!–li><a class="clearfix"
rel="/us/assets/data/products/pre2_wtb.json" id="aux-wheretobuy" href="#wtb">
<h3 class="sifr-text"> Buy now <img
src="/assets/images/global/sidebar_link_arrow.gif"> </h3>
<p class="intro">Available on Verizon Wireless <br />
and AT&T network</p>
</a></li–>
We know that Palm is going to be selling unlocked Pre 2 devices to developers, but perhaps this means non-developers will be able to get in as well?
Thanks Calvin and @SimonLR!