The International version (ATT International GSM) has a smaller catalog than the US version (Sprint CMDA).

In November Bell and Telus turn on a joint GSM network (Rogers already runs one), so perhaps we’ll see a deal to get the International version to Canada shortly.

It has nothing to do with Amazon and the Kindle disliking Canada. The blame rests squarely with this country’s wireless telecom giants. They want to overcharge for the service.

Hello,

The new Kindle *does* work in Canada. That is it the works on Rogers wireless network as a partner of AT&T. One should not assume that the issue related to the fact the device is not being shipped to Canada has anything to do with wireless.

If you check the wireless coverage map on the Amazon Kindle product page you will see that wireless coverage does exist and work. This is likely for people who have the product in the US and elsewhere who travel to Canada. You’ll also notice that there are many countries where the device is shipping to but where Whispernet does not work.

Sincerely,

Anonymous

Sorry, I’ll add one more thing. It’s more likely that the issue is a political one. Let’s not forget this little thing called “The Heritige Act” which has caused many problems as it relates to the book industry and Amazon.com in the past.

Or it could just be that they haven’t worked out the issues surrounding Canadian rights to the e-books.

It was hard enough to understand our inability to access Kindle when they were using it right on the other side of the US border. But now that it’s gone global (Amazon’s word), how do you manage to stay excluded from that? They have Kindle in Albania! And in Canada, we have the Kindle Screen Protector (now inexplicably offered on Amazon.ca).

Amazon must hate Canada. What other conclusion could you draw when it took them years to finally get around to creating amazon.ca, which offers just a tiny fraction of the products found on the amazon.com site in the US? To add insult to injury, products that are available at the US site cannot be ordered via amazon.ca.

Worse, Amazon just announced an international version of its Kindle 2 e-book reader, but went out of its way to let Canadians know they won’t be able to buy one anytime soon.

A lot of American companies behave the same way when it comes to Canada. When Canadians want to do business with them, they act like they come from another planet, or exhibit an astounding degree of ignorance like gangster Al Capone did when he said, “I don’t even know what street Canada is on.”

I don’t understand why this is the case. After all, we are America’s biggest trading partner, an ally and its next door neighbour. In fact, Canadian troops are dying in Afghanistan, fighting alongside their American counterparts, and saving their bacon, as usual.

Perhaps Amazon’s reluctance to sell the Kindle 2 in Canada has something to do with the Canadian Copyright Act, which is far more generous and open in its ‘fair-use’ provisions than US copyright statutes are, particularly the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).

That model of openness necessarily works against Amazon’s DRM-centric, proprietary, closed-loop, ‘consumer lock-in’ business model. (Sounds just like Sony, doesn’t it?)

The archaic strangleholds of a very limited number of corporations in Canada both telecommunications and publishing continues to keep this country in a defacto dark ages. The greed of unconscionable profit margins precludes any form of truly free enterprise or progress. The political body that supposedly represents the populous is merely a sham protecting the hoarders of wealth; (a form of corporate feudalism). While we maintain ourselves to be better than many other countries, we should realise that this is a symptom of the toxic diet of male bovine excrement that we are fed on a continual basis, a form of political ergotism.
The CRTC and its ganglion fingers greedily poke at the eyes of Canadians guaranteeing we don’t see the world around us, ignoring progress. Long forgotten promises of world leading interconnectedness and leading the way to the future are like many a campaign commitment, expected to never come to fruition.
The Kindle, the delayed introduction of the I-Phone, throttled internet rates, and abandoned fibre-optic expansion are only some of the fibres that make up the blindfold that we collectively struggle to see through. As our country slips into technological darkness we can at least be reassured that we are doing our best at making third and developing world countries feel good about themselves. They can point to us and say “at least we’re not as bad off as Canada, eh”.

Hi Doug,
I cannot agree with you more.
I am an immigrant from Russia, a developing 3rd world country. When I came here 5 years ago I was shocked how poor Canadian communications are. I happen to work in communications and know a bit how they works, how they should work and what they should cost.
What I couldn’t understand is why 3rd world’s providers and carriers, operating in their risky economies with periodically falling national currencies and therefore paying huge, sometimes prohibitive interests on bank loans for the same or even more expensive telecom equipment, having the same-cost interconnect agreements with providers across the world, have managed to offer lower cost services in their countries with the greater value.

What i didn’t understand is why 1 wirelessly downloaded Mb costed $0.20 in Russia, while it costs $2.0 in Canada.

Why cellular penetration rate is stuck at about 60% in Canada and is already about 134% in the developing Russia. Why cellurar call centers don’t work 24/7 there having an average monthly cellphone bill $35 in prosperous Canada, but they do work 24/7 for an average cellphone bill $15 in the poor developing Russia?

Why living in the biggest Canadian megalopolis, cannot I choose a cable TV provider among at least several competitors available at any specific address?
Do I ask too much? I had that and never thought I will travel back in time here in Canada

There is something fundamentally wrong in the system that cannot compete even with the weak economies any more. I am not speaking about escaping manufacturing, epidemic strikes, and rocketing labor costs. This is just about telecom industry alone.

Do you know what Russians say about Canada in their communities here? Canada is pretty much like what the USSR was right after the street cleaning day… It makes so much sense actually.

They came here for the stability, but found stagnation instead.

Sorry about that. I am not a stranger here and I would write all of it if I were just a passer-by… The Canadian monopolies supported by CRTC, sabotaging new Kindle expansion to Canada, is not just a sad sign of the modern Canada, it’s actually so sad that makes me laugh at some point.