The reason that a telus phone will not work on the bell network is because when the cell phone manufactor sells the phone to the cell companies the they give them a special activation code and lock code. WIthout that the companies can not make it work. Also due to theft, if the companies didn't have the esns on fiel you could steal a phone and just take it to another provider. If you want to get technical Bell phones could work on Telus and telus on Bell. Rogers and fido are also interchangeable.
Do you really want the potinal that anyone could lift your phone and walk over to another company?
About the reception telus uses Bell's towers in Ontario, so make sure it is not just the phone it's self, witch a lot of people do :-(

A telus phone on Bell network will work but bell customer service won't activate it. They will tell you that they don't have the ESN in their database or that telus phones has customized chips intend only for their own network. That's only lies !!!

The only way you can activate a non-bell phone on their network is by knowing someone who work there or by spending a lot of hours making phone calls at bell mobility supervisors & writing letters or emails to the complaint center.

Cell phone networks are the biggest crooks on earth !

Since bell are selling cheap & crappy brands like Kyocera, sanyo, samsung, lg, and a lot more, a lot of people move to other networks, They might consider re-starting to sell Motorola & Sony-Ericsson phones.
Motorola is the only brand i trust.