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Rogers Network Update: HSPA+ Rollout Continues Across Canada
May 4th, 2010 a 9:24am
Rogers customers from coast to coast will now be able to access wireless download speeds of up to 21 Mbps.
We were excited to be the first carrier to launch HSPA+ in North America last fall, launching in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Montreal. As promised, we have continued to roll out our HSPA+ network across the country, and are excited to say Canada’s reliable network is now lit up at speeds of up to 21 Mbps in the following areas:
- Victoria, BC
- Kelowna, BC
- Edmonton, AB
- Regina, SK
- Saskatoon, SK
- Winnipeg, MB
- Sudbury, ON
- Windsor, ON
- Hamilton, ON
- Kitchener, ON
- London, ON
- Barrie, ON
- Ontario Cottage Country, ON
- Kingston, ON
- St. Catharines, ON
- Québec City, QC
- Trois-Rivières, QC
- Sherbrooke, QC
- Moncton, NB
- Halifax, NS
- St. John’s, NF
Some of these regions are getting these world-class speeds for the first time. For more information on our HSPA+ network, visit www.rogers.com/fastest.
Will I get 21 Mbps speed on my device?
Speed is dependent upon your device’s capabilities. Smartphones aren’t ready for speeds of up to 21 Mbps just yet, but the Rogers HSPA+ Rocket Stick provides a mobile web experience similar to what you’d get at home or in the office.
Does anyone live in one of the new HSPA+ areas? Any HSPA+ Rocket Mobile Internet Stick users out there? How has it changed how you use the Internet on the go?
Rob Manne is a regular contributor to RedBoard.
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Great to see the networks in the major centres be improved upon. Living in a smaller centre though, I can’t help that feel that Rogers is forgetting about the rest of us that don’t live in metro areas. It would be great to see 3G coverage extended to these areas, rather than just continually offering these improvements only to those in the larger areas.
I just want to preface this bit by saying that I realize that infrastructure upgrades are a huge undertaking. But, considering those of us in the smaller areas pay the same amount of money as those in metro centres, it seems a bit unfair that we rarely see the benefits of these upgrades.
Does Rogers have any future plans to address this issue? Will we ever see 3G connectivity here in Amherst, NS? Or are we destined to always be stuck with EDGE?
Thanks for providing your perspective, Jeff. It’s great to get feedback from customers outside of the big cities.
We don’t have any network news to share for Amherst right now, but we’re continually upgrading our network in both metro areas and smaller centres.
We’ll keep you posted on future network updates via the blog.
Thanks for the response Bob.
While I appreciate the sentiment, actions speak louder than words for sure. Anything new that seems to be introduced (network-wise) seems to always cater to metro areas. I understand this is where the majority of your customers live, but there are quite a few of us that live in the smaller centres. The draw to another provider becomes a lot stronger when they have made it a priority to provide HSPA+ coverage for the quite a number of non-metro customers.
Thank you.
I noticed on the website that the prices for plans in smaller areas such as SK or the maritimes are quite a bit cheaper than plans in the larger city centers (for example, a $25 voice plan in NS would cost $35 in BC for the same number of minutes/features).
are you able to provide a map of coverage?
Hi Mike,
You can check out our coverage map here: http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless_network
Cheers!
Richard.
So in a city of 40,000 , Brandon, MB, we are stuck w/ edge but you feel the need to “upgrade” cities that had 3g service. Genius!
Doesn’t make much sense to me either @intrpd04. We’re all paying for the same level of service, even though we don’t all receive the same level.
Hi @intrpd04
You can expect to see upgrades in your area later this year as we expand our wireless voice and data network in Manitoba.
This expansion will provide new HSPA+ voice and data network coverage to areas including: Thompson, The Pas, Flin Flon and Nelson House, Island Lake and Hwy 10 & 6. Rogers will also be upgrading all existing coverage areas in Manitoba to HSPA+.
Cheers,
Richard.
Richard,
When is the voice and data expected to be running for Thompson, The Pas Hwy 6 and 10 in northern MB? I am heading there in a week for two months of work and need to have a useable phone. Can I bring my Rogers cell or do I have to trade my wife for her Telus one?
Thanks
Mark
With great speed comes great responsibility.
Larger data buckets needed. 6 gigs as the top data plan offered with a service you compare to home or office comparable speeds.
There are other companies out there offering Unlimited data with tethering, granted, they have a fair use tethering and a soft cap that reduces speed after that soft cap is met.
It is better priced than your best advertised plan and without the 3-5 cent per megabyte overage fee. I recognize that this paragraph may be enough to keep my post from passing through moderation, but I still think it needs to be said.
Without a doubt Rogers offers larger coverage areas and higher speeds with the new roll out but our smartphones do not have enough processing power to make use of this speed.
To truly benefit from this awesome leap in connectivity technology, we need to tether. If we are going to connect to the internet via our Cell phone data plan or a “rocketstick” we need plans that take advantage of the convenience of always on always with you internet.
Bigger data plans please. I am already searching for a service provider that offers the service I want. If I want it, I can guarantee that others will also want it. Rogers has the capability to lead the industry, does it have the vision?
Still waiting for 3g in Prince George, BC – northern capital of BC with some 80 000 residents. If Rogers can’t get it done, rest assured I’ll be taking my iPhone and my money to Telus/Bell as soon as I can – Better coverage and 3G! Come on Rogers, not everyone lives 100km from the border.
Hi Philip,
For Prince George specifically, we don’t have network news to share at the moment but we’re continually upgrading the network in both larger cities and smaller areas.
We’ll keep you up-to-date on network updates via RedBoard and our twitter account @RogersBuzz.
Thanks!
Richard
As I mentioned above:
Obviously all of us in smaller centres are still not convinced that there are plans for improvements to the network in our areas. These canned responses do nothing to heighten our hopes that we might one day see 3G coverage, nor do they placate us as customers. If anything it only frustrates us further.
It’s really tough to remain a dedicated Rogers customer when I see competing companies offering a higher level of service in my area, yet Rogers has “no network news to share at the moment”.
You betcha Phil. Rogers coverage in PG drives me absolutely nuts. Unless I’m in the Lower Mainland visiting family, I get dead-dog slow Edge speed …
Rogers needs to do better. Bring 3G to Prince George
While rogers in pouring money into the big markets, smaller communities are being ignored. In Tofino, while small with only 1800 residents, but big with 1 million visitors every year, we are still on edge with rogers. Telus on the other hand has managed to build out their network and the iphone is getting great speed on their 3g.
Needless to say that i have been advocating telus to my clients, have switched one of my account to them already and have one more ready to bail when the new 4G iPhone comes out.
If this is the way that rogers treats their existing customers, i don’t see the need to support them any further.
Good to see I can use my phone at the cottage. Now it would be really nice if I could use it in the Greater Toronto Area! Over the past few weeks, I’ve had horrible signal and reception, dropped and missed calls, slow and no data connection in the Financial Core of Toronto! What a shame!
+1
In the last 3 weeks, my 3G experience downtown T.O. and in Vaughan has been absolutely horrible! Failed calls, calls going directly to vm, several outgoing call attempts before finally being connected, and abysmal 3G signal levels. I was told my issues are being looked at but so far things have gotten worse. I am absolutely sick and tired of the “reliability” claims. I’m going to give this another month..if things don’t improve, I’ll have had it with Rogers.
There’s a good chance that this post probably won’t pass approval but it still must be said.
@RogersRob, you say you’re continually upgrading your network in smaller centres, however the converage area in St. John’s is (and has been since you started operations 20+ years ago!) miniscule compared to Bell & TELUS.
Why do you seem to invest so little in expanding coverage area in St. John’s in particular and Newfoundland in general?
My parents live 10 minutes from downtown St. John’s and when I was with Rogers, my phone was nothing more than a paper weight. No service period; and according to your coverage maps, none planned. With Bell & TELUS, the entire area is blanketed in 5-bar coverage.
I am with Rogers for Cable TV & Hi-Speed Internet. I’d love to be able to bundle my mobile phone with that as well, but when I visit Newfoundland, I need my phone to be functional more than ever. With Rogers’ St. John’s cellular coverage is at best spotty, at worst non-existant. Why no love for the East Coast Rogers?
I have to agree with the sentiment on this posting, the coverage in the smaller (though still large) areas is appalling. I live in Sydney, Nova Scotia with a population of approximately 28,000 and we only have EDGE, which is worse than dialup. Yet if I travel to New Glasgow or Truro (8000 people total) they have fast 3G. Its extremely frustrating when Bell and Telus offer HSPA even where Rogers has NO coverage at all. What is my incentive to stick with Rogers when I can get better service for the same price with Bell or Telus?
Have to agree that service outside the big cities ranges from OK to none. I’m 20 mi east of Medicine Hat, great to get the 3G coverage but rarely get the speed/2 bars mainly, 3 if you’re lucky. I don’t buy the 7.2 speed for a second. Plus the fun of my rocket stick just randomly unhooking pretty much daily.
My other high need for service location, 40 mi se of Regina, well…could be worse coverage by everyone, but don’t see how. Rogers says 2G, I’ve yet to actually get a hookup in the last 2 years. My partner has Telus, appallingly bad. I used to have a 33k modem, that was faster and more reliable than either. Even SaskTel cells don’t work, in spite of the ongoing and sincere assurances by SaskTel that the service is fine. We needed to make a 911 call last fall, and couldn’t get a signal…
I also live in Sydney, NS. Rogers you need to put HSPA here as soon as possible or at least set a time frame in which you will install it and tell people what that time frame is, All you have to do is look at Bell/Telus coverage map and you will see they offer HSPA in alot more places then Rogers, including Sydney.
To prove that there are many users having problems around the GTA and surrounding areas, please visit the link below to a thread on the Howard Forums website. Even if this doesn’t get posted, I’d like the folks at Rogers to be aware of what’s going on.
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1644156
Please hurry up and bring 3G service to Manitoba (outside Winnipeg), this is getting pathetic. Wind will end up having 3G service outside Winnipeg before Rogers will
Hi:
Just got the new Rocket Mobile Internet Stick. My downloading speed has been as high as 3 MB per sec, I was able to download a 900 MB file in under 1/2 hour.
rcamp45
I live in Victoria, BC and I’ve done several tests after this claim of the new speeds and it’s BS. I own a iPhone 3GS which is supposed to get up to 7.5 Mbps of 3G speeds and up to 15Mbps of wifi speeds. In most cases of speed tests I get near 2.0Mbps on 3G. If Rogers want to keep customers like me then stop lying and step it up or I’ll just switch to Bell or Telus which actually have speeds up to 15Mbps in Victoria.
Thank you
Key word is “up to.”
Don’t forget to upgrade PEI – I know it a small island with only 90000 but the service is horrible and 3G is only at the airport. But hoping now that Regis and Kelly are visiting you may include more 3G towers. LOL
What other products will Rogers be launching that take advantage of HSPA+. I’m particularly interested in the Rogers Rocket Hub with HSPA+ 21mbps speeds.