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Rogers confirms LTE deployment; invests in Canada’s “Digital Fast Lane”
February 16th, 2011 a 3:40pm
Back in October, we announced Canada’s first comprehensive technical trial of Long Term Evolution (LTE) on our wireless network. Well today, we took a major step forward with the announcement that we are beginning a multi-year deployment of LTE wireless technology in 2011.
It’s clear that the world’s wireless products and networks are evolving to LTE and we’re pleased to lead in bringing this technology to Canadians.
LTE is fourth generation “4G” wireless technology that allows significantly more data to pass through a wireless network at faster broadband speeds. For our customers, LTE will truly enable a world defined by data, providing a true broadband experience for HD video streaming, gaming, communications, transactions and other connected experiences through mobile Internet. LTE will drive Canadian innovation and fuel what Nadir Mohamed, our president and chief executive officer, calls the “Digital Fast Lane.”
We’re excited about this news so we wanted to provide an update as soon as we could, but that also means we can’t share specific details yet about when LTE will be commercially available, which devices will be LTE-ready and which cities will get LTE first. We’ll be sure to update you here on RedBoard when more details are available.
Finally, a note on 4G: While there is confusion about what constitutes 4G technology, we won’t use that term to refer to the HSPA+ technology that Rogers first introduced in North America in 2009. When Rogers says 4G, we mean LTE.
Keith McArthur is Senior Director of Social Media at Rogers
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+1 for not calling HSPA+ 4G
What what. This is truly awesome but with higher speeds come more usage and more data and higher bills. I’m sad again. But with LTE, phones might be able to truly replace computers and cable broadband.
Yes higher speeds with low bit caps. Excellent.
Good job. Now let’s expand the infrastructure and lower cost per gb please. My wallet hurts.
Very nice. Thank god I signed up for that 6GB deal back in September, assuming any regular data plan will grant access to LTE.
If it doesn’t that would be a complete bait and switch on their part.
Higher speeds so you can stream MORE content which makes you use more GBs which will cost you more $$$ followed by probably charging more $$$ just to access the LTE network will leave our wallets probably empty.
I’ll wait til all is official and properly announced but I’ll be keeping a very close eye on costs associated with this upgrade.
Congrats Rogers, congrats for the real LTE, and congrats for telling us the truth on that one.
HSPA+ is not LTE. Thanks.
For new and upcoming customers, sales pitch would be driving on a paved asphalt country road with four traffic lights heading to the city comparison with driving on a one-way 8-lane cemented highway sans traffic light straight to my downtown parking lot . Nevermind the toll.
“For our customers, LTE will truly enable a world defined by data, providing a true broadband experience for HD video streaming, gaming, communications, transactions and other connected experiences through mobile Internet.”
This part made me laugh. They want us to stream HD videos when their highest Tier data plan can’t even cover a full lengh movie.
Well, this is good news I suppose, but the devil (as it always is) will be in the details.
And seeing as the company is so far unable- or unwilling- to divulge any of those details, we should all take a deep breath.
What will this advancement do to the pricing structure? How fast will it be? What will 4G coverage be like outside of major centres? When will it be rolled out, and over what type of time frame? Which phones will be offered for use on this network?
Sorry folks- can’t answer any of that and we have no idea when such info may be available. For now you’ll have to be satisfied with the news that 4G is coming to Rogers…in 2011…if all goes according to plan…end transmission.
This announcement feels like a ‘me too’ sort of deal. Telus announces its moving to 4G and what do you know? Rogers is too….eventually. And surely news about Bell’s 4G plans won’t be far behind.
It’s battle of the press releases! Who can make the most noise while revealing the smallest number of details at the same time? Who knows? Better stay tuned!
So yes, be excited for Rogers- they clearly want you to be happy for them on their big news day- but save your questions for later.
Much later.
Thanks for the comment @Random72. As I say in the post, we’re referring specifically to LTE – we’re the first carrier in Canada to commit to building out LTE and to confirm that we’re investing in building it out.
As for other carriers talking about 4G – Rogers was the first carrier in North America to launch an HSPA+ network back in 2009 – we just don’t call it 4G. But as I say in the post, when Rogers says 4G we mean LTE.
Sorry I don’ t have more details to announce yet.
HSPA = 3.5G
Remember everyone, they didn’t actually say there would be LTE available during 2011. They said Rogers is starting a “multi-year deployment of LTE wireless technology in 2011″ :P
Will my iPhone 4G work on this 4G (LTE) network?
Please note that iPhone 4 is not a 4G device. 4 is just the version of model. iPhone 4 is a 3G device. So, to answer your question, No….
You are not the only one with this confusion…. I’ve heard this question from plenty more ppl.
Data stick and handset manufacturers are just starting to announce and roll out devices that will work on an LTE network. Of course, we’ll continue to provide our HSPA+ network technology for devices built for that type of network.
Sounds like exciting days ahead for Rogers and Rogers Customers !
Thanks Bryan! We’re pretty excited about this.
Although this is great news… I’d like Rogers to get 3G right before moving onto 4G. There is no much network congestion its crazy. Calls constantly switching from 3G to Edge… a while back I couldn’t even make calls with 3G, had to switch to Edge for it to work. Sad part is when you call Rogers, they act as though its not happening. It’s great to make an announcement, and another to show us a plan of when this will happen. It was obvious LTE will be coming to Canada, but will this be in my lifetime? It’s like being the first carrier to announce the iPhone 5, when it will be coming at the same time as other carriers next summer.
- Loyal Rogers customer for over 10 years.
This has nothing to do with the voice network. You actually called them to complain about this? They’re not acting like it’s not happening, you just don’t understand exactly what you’re talking about. EDGE/3G/HSPA/HSPA+/LTE, these are networks for DATA, not voice.
Voice is data. :)
Yes, voice calls are transmitted as data on a digital network like GSM/UMTS but it doesn’t travel on the EDGE or HSPA networks. They are for packet data, which is the context we’re talking about here. It does get more confusing with LTE because it will be fast and enough and will have low enough latency that voice data and packet data can be carried the same way. This does threaten Rogers current business model, we pay more for voice bits even at the rates they charge for data plans.
What frequency band does Rogers plan to deploy LTE on? The FCC auctioned off frequencies in the 700MHz band awhile back and Industry Canada does not plan on auctioning this band until 2012.
If Rogers Wireless goes ahead and offers 4G LTE with a minimum monthly cap of say 80 or so GB, for me it would mean I would not need a cable or DSL provider. Having one connection/provider to the internet would be great for me, and I am pretty sure other people would think so too.
Odds are due to costs et al, this will only be deployed in Toronto for the first year so they can test it out. Then when they realize that it will cost some of their massive profits to upgrade the rest of the country, Rogers will just sit back and wait for either Bell or Telus to move into an area, then Rogers will announce that they will be upgrading the service in that area as well. It seems to be all that Rogers ever does, wait for someone else to commit to upgrading something, then saying “Yes we are upgrading in that area first and we though about doing it before you did” Else why would Newfoundland only have edge service? Bell and Telus have better coverage there then Rogers, but it is not profitable to upgrade the service there, so they just leave it and hope everyone will ignore the craptacular coverage. They did the same thing in North Western Ontario. Instead of upgrading their HORRIBLE edge service, Rogers backed out, sold their cusomer list to Tbaytel the local providor, and Tbaytel did what Rogers refused to, upgraded the entire area to 3G. Thunder Bay and all of NWO only had 6 towers. 6! The next closest Rogers Tower was in Sault Ste. Marie 7 hours away. Now with Tbaytel on the horns, there is over 50+ 3G towers in the area, and they are expanding constantly.
If they can’t make a profit, Rogers will never upgrade, and will use the excuse that they don’t have the money. When, as they are a publicly traded company and ALL expenses and revenues are available, we know they do, and they just do not care! (For the all of 2010, operating revenue at Rogers Communications was up 4 percent to $12.2 billion, adjusted operating profits were up 5 percent to $4.6 billion while net income was up 3 percent to $1.5 billion when compared to 2009.) So I hope Toronto enjoys LTE service, as the rest of Canada will probably never see it until 5G service comes along. At 4+ BILLION a year in profit, Rogers does NOT NEED UBB, and should be able to afford to give all of Canada LTE coast to coast.
I agree with you completely… its very frustrating from a subsriber’s point of view. If Roger’s really wanted to they could blow the competition right out of the water. If they invest in their network it would mean even greater profits for them and the shareholders down the road. But the executives at Rogers who make the mutli million dollar a year salaries fail to see the big picture. They can say they have 1000000G but it will never be enough until they stop ignoring the rest of Canada outside of Alberta and Ontario.
What happens to the GSM network when LTE is released? I’m running my Captivate on the GSM network for voice calling as the HSPA+ network is far too unreliable when in 3 bars or less areas. When on 3G, there are times when incoming calls do not register on the phone and I don’t get text notifications. If 4G turns out to be the same problem will I have a reliable network to fall back on?
Will LTE be expanded across the entire network like the way GSM was deployed? Or will you continue to ignore certain provinces like the one I am in. We are “still waiting” for HSDPA in “more” than 2 locations. Rogers, you have absolutely no competitive advantage in NFLD or SK. …. and you dont really even care.
Im from Sask and I have to second the brutal coverage in Sask. The only reason I still stay with Rogers is because they have me on a retentions plan that no one else can beat. As bad as the 3G coverage is there is still holes in 2G. Driving between Saskatoon and Regina there is a dead spot just past Kenaston where there is no coverage. So yes Rogers LTE is nice but lets get one network right before the next one. If you insist on moving forward ok, then do it right not half assed and spotty.
Why don’t you fill the gaps in your network with 3G first, then move to LTE? I’m still stuck on Edge in Cape Breton Nova Scotia with no improvements. My phone will occasionally switch all the way down to GPRS when I am down town. Inexcusable! Meanwhile my friends on Bell and Telus have 3.5G and are loving it. There is absolutely no advantage to go with Rogers in this area at all. Bell and Telus have you beat across the board. LTE means squat if a meaningful percentage of your customers still suffer with Edge and GPRS.
Awesome news… Just hurry up already. Verizon in the US already lit up LTE in most major cities. Hopefully this won’t take too long here in southern ontario.