Rogers details 28-city LTE upgrade for rest of 2012, RIM's hometown included
Rogers' LTE network is old enough to mark its first birthday. Unless you happened to live in one of the seven largest cities in Canada during that time, however, you've largely been left out -- that status indicator on the Rogers version of the One X may as well have been a subtle form of mockery. To the delight of our friends up North, the carrier has detailed a much more aggressive LTE rollout for the rest of the year: a total of 28 more cities will get that sweet 4G nectar in the next few months. Most of these expansions will blanket the southern half of Ontario, but major cities in the Prairies, Quebec and the Maritimes will all get their fair share. Arguably, the most important upgrade is coming to RIM's home base of Waterloo; when the company is virtually betting its future on likely LTE-ready BlackBerry 10 devices, having widescale LTE to test against is a slightly important prerequisite. The full city list is available after the break.
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Rogers Marks First Year anniversary of Canada's First LTE Wireless Network
$2.2 billion of wireless capital investments in Canada including LTE;
28 more cities to be launched in 2012;
Canada's largest LTE device selection continues to grow
TORONTO, July 9, 2012 /CNW/ - Rogers Communications, Canada's leading diversified communications and media company, is today marking the first year anniversary of its deployment of next generation LTE wireless services in Canada. As the first company to bring LTE to Canadians, Rogers is investing approximately $2.2 billion in wireless capital investments in 2011 and 2012, including close to $500 million to bring LTE to the majority of Canadians by the end of 2012.
"We're proud to have been the first to offer the fastest wireless network technology in the world to our customers," says John Boynton, Rogers Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. "We continue to deliver world leading Internet experiences by investing heavily in our wireless network, and based on what our customers tell us, our investments are paying off. Whether it's a family using faster connections to stay in touch through video calling, a student downloading large files on the go, a sports fan catching every second of the game, or a commuter maximizing travel time, LTE is making Canadians' lives better."
On July 7, 2011, Rogers launched LTE in the greater metropolitan areas of Ottawa, followed by Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and surrounding cities. So far in 2012, Rogers has rolled out LTE in St. John's, Halifax and Calgary to reach approximately 35 per cent of the Canadian population.
Rogers is continuing to expand its LTE network, expanding coverage in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax, Calgary and Vancouver, and adding a number of new cities from coast to coast with the plan to cover approximately 60 per cent of the population by the end of the year. Rogers plans to launch LTE in Moncton, Trois Rivières, Sherbrooke, Quebec City, Kingston, Ajax, Pickering, Oshawa, Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton, St. Catharines, Niagara, Windsor, Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph, London, Barrie, Sudbury, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Kelowna, Abbotsford and Victoria. More cities will be launched in 2013.
Rogers was the first in Canada to introduce LTE devices a year ago, and today, with six smartphones and mobile Internet devices, it has the largest selection of LTE devices in the country. This summer, Rogers will be launching several more LTE devices, including Sony's first LTE smartphone, the Sony Xperia Ion, and Canada's first LTE Rocket hub™. The ZTE MF28B is a Rogers exclusive that will connect up to 15 devices simultaneously and is now available for Rogers customers to reserve through the Rogers Reservation System.
For more information on Rogers LTE network and devices visit www.rogers.com/lte.
