Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- BCE Inc.’s Bell Canada and Telus Corp. reached agreements with Apple Inc. to sell the iPhone, stepping up competition with Rogers Communications Inc., which had held the exclusive right to sell the device in Canada.

BCE, Canada’s largest phone company, and Vancouver-based wireless carrier Telus will begin offering the iPhone 3G and 3GS in November, the companies said in statements today. Rogers had been the country’s exclusive carrier for more than a year.

BCE and Telus are upgrading their networks to accommodate the iPhone and other smart phones, whose sales are outpacing the broader market. BCE said yesterday that it will introduce a new high-speed network next month, ahead of the original deadline. Telus is developing a similar system, and both carriers will let their customers roam on either network -- helping the companies cut costs.

“This deal could improve retention of customers at Bell and Telus,” said Neeraj Monga, an analyst at Veritas Investment Research Co. in Toronto. “Rogers won’t end up losing too much of their market share.”

Apple is “thrilled” to have signed the Canadian agreements, said spokeswoman Natalie Harrison, who declined to comment on the details of the deals.

No Surprise

The announcements weren’t a surprise, said Liz Hamilton, a spokeswoman for Toronto-based Rogers. “In other markets worldwide, Apple is offering consumers an option of multiple carriers,” she said.

BCE, based in Montreal, rose 7 cents to C$26.37 at 4 p.m. in Toronto Stock Exchange trading. Telus climbed 1 cent to C$33.97.

Sales of smart phones, which can surf the Web and download applications, climbed 27 percent worldwide in the second quarter, according to Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner Inc. That compares with a 6.1 percent drop for total mobile-handset sales.

The iPhone deal is a “significant part” of Telus’s plan to boost sales, said Jim Johannsson, a spokesman for the company.

The fact that Telus and BCE announced iPhone deals on the same day isn’t a signal that the companies plan to sell mobile phones together, Johannsson said.

The agreement with Apple “is leading to a leveling of the field in terms of higher speeds and access to handsets,” said Greg MacDonald, an analyst at National Bank Financial in Toronto. “It will impact Rogers only in the near term.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in New York at svaidyanath3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 6, 2009 16:33 EDT