I got a SIM card from WIND on Friday, [the opening day]{nexus-on-wind-in-ottawa}, and put it into my Nexus One. All of a sudden everyone I know wants me to drop by their house to test the service there. Guys, it’s only $15 for a month of testing… :D

So far, in my neighbourhood (Central Park), and the surrounding area (drove down Merivale, Baseline, Carling, and Kirkwood), I get 3-4 bars (out of 4). I am well covered here, it seems.

The family and I were going out of town on Saturday, so I asked my lovely wife to note the changes in the signal as we drove west out of Ottawa on the 417 towards Arnprior. Here is what she wrote down:

Along 417 signal dropped to two bars outside of Bayshore briefly before returning to four bars when approaching Kanata. Two bars noted again at Scotiabank Place, with zero bars quickly after. At Stittsville exit service switched to roaming (Rogers GSM network) at four bars, which quickly fell to no signal.

So there you have it, Nepean to Kanata is well covered. But, if you live past the hockey arena, you’re not likely to chose WIND. While out in the bush, the WIND coverage is pretty much as good as Rogers… I had two phones with me (one on Rogers and one on WIND Away) and I didn’t see any significant difference – as you’d expect.