Nexus One in Canada

I've been lucky enough to be using a Google Nexus One for the past few weeks (thanks to my employer). The setup steps are basically the same as I posted for the G1 - as are the limitations.

First, you'll need a Nexus One. Apparently Google's online store realizes you're in Canada and won't sell you one - but the resourceful will get one. I'm sure Google will eventually release the Nexus One to Canada - probably when the limitations below are resolved.

As with the original G1, the Nexus One will work on the Rogers/Fido network, but not at 3G speeds. You'll only get EDGE speed. For most things this is perfectly fine - but watching a YouTube video is painful. If you can live with that limitation, read on.

You'll also need a Rogers (or Fido) SIM card. Make sure you have a data plan (not a Blackberry plan). But, do NOT insert the SIM yet. Doing the initial setup over wifi will be easier - the Android setup doesn't let you configure APN info during setup (which is silly) and your SIM card may not set it correctly.

So, make sure you're in a wifi area. Put the battery in, but do not put in the SIM card. Turn on the phone and go through the setup. You'll be able to configure the wifi connection and setup the phone with your Google account.

Once the phone is setup, turn it off and put the SIM card in. Turn it back on. You should have phone access and data may work depending on the SIM card (turn off the wifi to check). If data does not work, you'll need to configure the APN info. See my previous post for details.

Enjoy! It's a great phone (but, yes, I'm sure it's not perfect... yet).

Update: Corrected the mention of Bell/Telus. Because of the way they've built their 3G networks (as an overlay on their CDMA network) they don't have fallback capabilities that the Nexus One will support.