Rogers LTE launch details revealed; 4G in Vancouver by February 2010
Rogers recently held a conference call ahead of its earnings call and you knew your pals at BGR would have all the goods for you. The most interesting topic covered? LTE! That’s right Verizon, your buddies north of the border aren’t just going to sit back and relax while you go all 4G on us. Here are some key points regarding LTE from the Rogers call:
- Rogers’ LTE network is currently ahead of its development schedule
- Recent tests have yielded 50 Mbps download speeds without any sort of optimization (woo!)
- Speeds at launch are expected to reach 70 Mbps
- The initial launch of the Rogers LTE network will take place in Vancouver and the surrounding area, in time for the 2010 Olympics (February 2010)
- The service will launch with a USB stick – Rogers is still talking to vendors – but it has no plans to have any 4G-enabled handsets available at that time
- The Rogers 4G network will expand outside of the Vancouver area during Q2 2010
- Rogers will have 4G phones available by the end of Q2 2010 as it extends its 4G network
- Rogers noted that its 3G launch was a mess but it is taking measures to ensure that 4G goes much smoother
Beyond LTE, Rogers discussed its cable business and the fact that it is currently running near capacity. At the same time, it knows it needs to expand upon its available HD content so Rogers wants to merge its three internet systems – cable internet, 3G and its Portable Internet system. The process will be slow going however as the current 3G system can’t handle the additional load but by Q3 2010 Rogers will have a stable and widely-deployed 4G network that will be more than capable of picking up the slack. As that time Rogers plans to move its cable internet network over to the LTE network in order to free up cable for more HD.
This migration will obviously take a bit of time as it must be staggered to avoid major outages, but Rogers cable customers should at least be happy to know that Rogers is working hard to beef things up and give you a more up to date service offering. Beyond that, Rogers will be dishing out dual-network modems — cable and 4G — and you know you can’t wait to get your hands on one of those puppies. This will allow Rogers to slowly move its internet service from cable to 4G, eventually shifting everything to 4G and using cable as a seamless backup in case of outages.
Thanks, RogersDude!
Oh Canadaaaa
Ummm, the earnings call was yesterday. And they explicitly said they are in no hurry to deploy 4G because they think they can get more out of their 3G network (Telstra is using new technology to get 42.2Mbps on HSPA).
As for the cable assets, they haven’t even launched DOCSIS3.0 yet. They’ve got plenty of capacity on the fixed line network.
I would be happy if they stopped “innovating” for a while and concentrated on perfecting the services they already offer. I don’t want to see faster speeds until the day I get zero dropped calls, Internet speeds as advertised, and HDTV that actually works and doesn’t looks like crap, freeze and stutter, pixelate or drop the sound.
F*ck Rogers and this PR tripe.
Expect to cost rape and to have a ridiculous cap.
Typical Robbers.
Adi
YO Andrew!!! that happens to your HD signal as well!! I thought it was just me. Whenever a decent show is on like NBC Nightly News or The Office, it just scrambles. Sound stops working. The worst was back when the Sopranos was running. It seems as if the more people drawing the signal makes it not work as well. I don’t know if thats true or not but all I know is 200 bucks a month and half-assed HD is not worth it.
In the call, did they talk about world domination and the inevitable enslaving of all of Canada under its persian cat petting regime?
WIN !
the quote from the Q4 financial teleconference, from Rogers’ exec:
“….HSPA, we believe has a lot of legs….
and may allow us to stretch that capital investment cycle moving to LPE to longer than most people think.”
It seems like Rogers is denying this report. The following is the email I received from a Rogers representative:
“While we generally don’t comment on speculation or rumour, this posting is not accurate. Rogers was involved in no such call.”
Could you give more details on the source of this story? Thanks.
this looks like rogers is just saying this cuz telus is huge in that part of canada “vancouver” and telus and bell want to roll out Lte for the winter olympics.. and rogers doesnt want to lose any more clients they are already robbing..
does this even make sense?
“eventually shifting everything to 4G and using cable as a seamless backup in case of outages.”
why would they use precious spectrum which they pay through the nose for just to deliver internet service that is already in place?
With Docsis 3.0 can’t cable co’s get to 100Mbs in a more cost effective way?
they should probably push all their analog cable subs to go digital if they want to free up space for HD.
What an exquisite crock of garbage. You might want to attempt some form of fact checking before you publish such drivel – is everything else you publish equally doubtful? There again, one does expect a reasonable amount of drivel from Rogers…
w/e
I hope this is true
I’m really shocked by the absolute CRAP quality of BGR reporting on this topic. You guys dominate on handset info but totally blew this one. Any basic fact checking would have led you to throw this story where it belongs, in the trash.
Shaws Hd pvr does the same thing out in vancouver.. i think it has to do with the channel network not the cable companies
So now that this entire story has been proved false (as I originally pointed out minutes after the story was posted), is BGR going to retract the story or just let their credibility flap in the wind?
OK! now officially i think i fell in love.
That sounds promising. Why can’t we have something like that happen in the US.
Comcast should team up with Sprint to do something like this especially with all the money they’re making they’re one of the biggest cable providers in the United States they can afford to dish out a couple of billion to help with the 4G advancement/deployment as well as this would also help them upgrade to the next wired connectivity after fiber optic.
Imagine they upgrade to infrared and skip over fiber optic cables they’d be ahead of the competition because they’d get faster speeds as well as the Sprint network to run on.
Cablevision should do this in the New England area so i can enjoy some sexy download speeds.
Rogers’ internet offering is currently limited to a geography where it has coax last mile.
Roger’s wireless coverage is nationwide.
So if Rogers has sufficient 4G spectrum, it might be able to offer some internet access over its 4G LTE network in geographies where it has no coax.
For instance, it might be able to compete in the Vancouver area where right now, it can’t really offer any internet access because this is Shaw territory.
This initial statements in this thread might not be so bogus if they were made by some Rogers rep in Vancouver and with a view on the statement applying to Roger’s west coast operations instead of Roger’s toronto operations.
Well Bell is going to Have Hspa+ in a month or two. I heard LTE is faster. but a lot more expensive. Its all about putting the money in the right places.