TELUS jumping on the high-speed data bus; 2010 launch
High-speed hungry Canadians will soon have a new option when seeking out a wireless carrier. This morning, TELUS officially announced its plans to get rolling on an HSPA network with a target launch sometime in early 2010 with a full-on 4G network to follow. That’s right people, our pals north of the border will probably be feasting on 4G data ar while we’re still angry that all the iPhone 3Gs out there are dropping throughput to EDGE-like speeds. TELUS CEO snippet time:
This technology evolution is a win for Canadian consumers. TELUS’ investment in next generation wireless services will give our clients more wireless functionality including; international roaming, fast network speeds and a compelling selection of globally-compatible handsets and devices. As the next evolution in our multi-network strategy, this initiative will position TELUS to actively participate in the future global LTE eco-system and leverage economies of scale, offer timely access to handsets, and enhance global roaming relationships and revenues.
Through a revised agreement with Bell, TELUS will be using the 1900 MHz and 850 MHz spectrum and both Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei will be providing the LTE gear. The entire project is expected to run TELUS about $750 million.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Glad to see that BOTH Bell and Telus are upgrading their networks. Bell made their announcement early this morning.
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$750 mil…that’s not too shabby. Let’s see, Telus to most likely to have a pretty solid 4G network by 2010. AT&T is currently upgrading their 3G…I’m estimating that by 2012 or maybe later, AT&T will ONLY announce that it’s going to roll out 4G for a launch date in 2014, maybe 2015.
Isn’t it awesome how U.S. Wireless Carriers rape us as long as possible with old technology! Yay!
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Didn’t Verizon Wireless set 2010 as the start date for their LTE deployment as well?
CDMA carriers need to upgrade faster than GSM carriers do, HSDPA and its upgrades are faster than EV-DO Rev. A, and development on new versions of EV-DO has essentially stopped.
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guys, read carefully, TELUS announced a hspa network for early 2010. HSPA is a 3g network. They only said it was part of the evolution to get to 4g, no dates for 4g yet
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And it’s Bell and Telus teaming up. Check out
http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081010.wbell1010/BNStory/Business/home
“Bell said the upgrades should be in place for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.”
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yea u guys posted this wrong its HSPA for 2010. to help ease the transition to LTE. its NOT lte starting in 2010
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At least puts a nice end to the idiots blindly saying that Telus and Bell are switching to GSM.
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You have it wrong. They are upgrading to HSPA in 2010, which is considered 3.5G and the logical GSM path to LTE. Their 4G network upgrade (LTE) probably won’t happen until 2012/2013 like AT&T
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Why not just go straight to LTE???
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Hello,
As Justin said earlier in the conversation, TELUS is NOT implementing 4G LTE to be operational by 2010. The network evolution to HPSA is being done now to make the transition to LTE seemless once the 4G technology is ready for deployment. My assumption is that TELUS will operate both the CDMA and GSM networks together for a few year while contiuing to build the LTE infastructure and slowly transistion our clients from CDMA to HSPA. Once LTE is ready for turn up, the CDMA network will PROBABLY then be turned down. The move to GSM now in time for 2010 is a no brainer, Rogers will not be the only carrier collecting roaming revenue from all the foreign visitors with their GSM phones coming to BC for the Olympics.
http://www.telusmobility.com/network
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4G doesn’t even have any standards yet, so, how can they be upgrading thier network to 4G when no one in the world knows what the 4G standards are?
This announcement should read that finally Telus is going to try to catchup with AT&T.
To read more about 4G, see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G
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I haven’t read something like this for a long time.
Thanks you for sharing this information!
Mr. World
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TBone wrote:
“Why not just go straight to LTE???”
LTE as a standard is still not fully baked. The only LTE networks on the planet are in labs. What’s baked is the commitments from the major global carriers to go the LTE route. HSPA is 3.5G as another poster has noted. The upgrade for TELUS and Bell to go from this to LTE will likely be incremental and quick.
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