TeddyK
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ElizabethS
Rogers announced today that it intends to launch its own Long-Term Evolution (LTE) high-speed mobile network, starting in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa later this year. A further 25 other markets in the country will be hooked in before the end of 2012.
LTE is basically the next step after 3G, though it’s not entirely 4G, as Rogers might eventually claim it is. “LTE Advanced” is what is widely considered to be 4G. This network won’t be there quite yet. Rogers is saying that the new network will offer speeds that are between three-to-four times faster than the current HSPA+ we experience now. At its fastest, the peak download rate will be a swift 150Mbps with an upload rate of 70Mbps.
The kicker to all this is the lower latency, meaning that having a lot of people connected to the network in a dense environment won’t affect performance like it does now. In sparsely-populated Canada, this isn’t as big an issue, but if you’ve ever tried to download an app in the middle of Manhattan in rush hour, good luck.
To start with, LTE will go live on the AWS spectrum, and then deploy further in other bands to offer more blanket coverage. No exact timeframe has been announced as to when LTE will roll out this year, but it’s likely to be in the fall sometime.
Meanwhile, Rogers has put up a site to help people better understand the LTE network and what it will offer.
