Following successful trials in Ottawa and Montreal in 2010, Rogers Communications, one of Canada’s biggest service providers, has announced that it will launch its LTE network this year. The roll out will kick off initially in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa before extending into a further 25 markets in 2012. Ericsson has inked the deal to supply the radio sites, using its multi-standard radio base station RBS 6000 technology; it will also upgrade and expand Rogers’ existing packet core network into an Evolved Packet Core in support of the new LTE infrastructure.

April 29, 2011

1 Min Read
MTS Allstream will use the upgrade to meet growing customer demand for higher-speed services
MTS Allstream will use the upgrade to meet growing customer demand for higher-speed services

Following successful trials in Ottawa and Montreal in 2010, Rogers Communications, one of Canada’s biggest service providers, has announced that it will launch its LTE network this year. The roll out will kick off initially in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa before extending into a further 25 markets in 2012.

Ericsson has won the deal to supply the radio sites, using its multi-standard radio base station RBS 6000 technology. It will also upgrade and expand Rogers’ existing packet core network into an Evolved Packet Core in support of the new LTE infrastructure.

According to Rogers, the rollout will initially use the AWS spectrum it acquired in 2008. Rogers CEO Nadir Mohamed said that a 700MHz Digital Dividend auction on May 2nd “will give carriers more options for bands to be used for next-generation networks,” which the company clearly hopes will help it achieve its strategy of offering LTE in multiple bands. Rogers says its network will offer peak download rates of up to 150Mbps with upload rates of up to 70Mbps.

Earlier this month, rival operator Telus announced its plans to deploy an LTE network in 2012, with construction slated to begin in major urban areas in the second half of this year.

You May Also Like