Lacero. A fellow Canadian.
Some Rogers GSM/GPRS/EDGE History. NOTE: I did used to work for Rogers back in 2001 for the customer service department on 333 Bloor Street East, which is connected to 1 Mount Pleasant RD. I did have the honor & pleasure - free - of testing out the GSM network in the summer of 2001 before official launch Nov 1/2, 2001 (1st was official but highly problematic, 2nd was a relaunch).
Looks like your phone is a TDMA standard which their probably phasing out soon enough. WHy? Because national coverage is the same or greater than TDMA. Back in 2001 Rogers only had the 1900Mhz band which limited their voice quality in remote locations, or in the basement of your house. Now with 850mhz band the quality of voice is astounding as well as the coverage! Another major reason for phasing out TDMA is most likely their currently testing WCDMA/UMTS/3G in the wild. In Vancouver & also in Toronto with engineers. When they role this out, the network may not support TDMA any longer. Thats my educated guess though.
Many phones are available, but ask yourself what do you need in a phone? Voice coverage? If so then do not get the Nokia 9300 as it only supports 1900Mhz for use in North America & I can gaurantee that when you need the coverage it'll fail. Make sure your phone selection has 850Mhz, even if coverage isnt a concern, as EDGE data speeds is only offered in Canada by Rogers on this band, not the 1900Mhz. Most of their phones have it anyway.
Do you need a phone that takes good photos for those spontaneous funny's or to bribe the beer goggled friend getting a date? The SE s710a is incredible for that as its the only phone offered with a CCD chip, at least officially supported in Canada. Is a swivel phone though. Also, the Moto V635 is a great phone with bluetooth & 1.3MP Camera and is memory expandable currently to 256MB TransFlash memory card format. Theres the Treo 650 with incredible performance and data management.
My honest suggestion, no matter what you need is to first go into a Rogers Cellular Store. DONT mention your hardware upgrade, just ask for them to explain you the pros & cons of all phones your curious about, and thank them for their time. Then you will have a better idea of a phones features & most importantly how it feels in your hands. There's nothing more sad then getting an awesome phone for free just to have it fall outta your hands to break in less than a week. In any case go for an expensive phone if you can, if you dont like it then you can sell it and get a phone thats more reasonable.
PS going to howardforums.com in the Rogers section gives you a better lookout of things like network issues, new phone announcements, and well a community by cellular phone users around the world, but in the Rogers' forum its Canadians. Cheers.
OH YEAH ALMOST FORGOT>>>>>>>IMPORTANT. Ask if anything regarding your voice plan will be changed or cause problems during your changeover. will your local coverage be the same! You dont want surprises here, and if not asked, then the rep may not tell you!!!!!
Cheers.