Rogers Wireless begins 21Mbps HSPA+ rollout, a first in North America
By Donald Melanson 
posted Jul 28th 2009 11:38AM
posted Jul 28th 2009 11:38AM
It may not have beaten the likes of Australia's Telstra to the 21Mbps mark, but Rogers Wireless has still earned some pretty impressive bragging rights as the first carrier in North America to move on up to HSPA+, which (theoretically) more than doubles the maximum speeds of the current 7.2 Mbps network. According to Rogers, it'll begin to "progressively increase" download speeds starting in August, with the Greater Toronto Area expectedly first on deck to get a taste of all that bandwidth -- although Rogers does say that it'll "expand quickly over the coming months" in other cities across Canada and eventually cover the entire country. Those south of the border shouldn't feel too glum about the situation however, as last we had heard, AT&T was "likely" to bypass HSPA+ altogether and move straight from 7.2Mbps to LTE and the ludicrous speeds it promises.
Ya maybe AT&T will get LTE in 2012?
Rogers has MMS, Tethering and now HSPA+...
So by the time AT&T offers LTE so will Rogers lol
Don'tcha just love being Canadian? =D
More choices, faster than anywhere in the 'Western Hemesphere'.
Rogers was the first ever with HSDPA and now they're the first with HSPA+
Let's just hope their roll out isn't consistent from what they did with HSDPA.
at&t has 7.2? where? lol
Just like they did when they launched HSDPA, Rogers will put up a couple of cell sites and then start bragging about it - when in reality only a small percentage of their users can actually take advantage of the speed.
For Canadian's who are looking to take advantage of HSPA+ speeds I would be inclined to wait for Bell and TELUS to launch HSPA+ in early 2010. They'll both have a National HSPA+ network and don't have to deal with all of the legacy GSM equipment that Rogers does so I expect their average throughput to be better as well!
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Well, first of all, Bell and Telus aren't teaming up for HSPA+, they're just planning on HSPA. So basically, they'll offer 7.2Mbps next year, while Rogers will offer 21Mbps next month. Bell/Telus won't be anywhere near national (probably just in the Olympic area for the first few months at least), and their lack of 2G GSM infrastructure means nothing for performance. If anything, it's just as likely that their combination of CDMA/HSPA might end up complicating things. But in reality, Bell and Telus will probably be just as fast next year, as Rogers was 2 years ago.
Second, why am I not surprised that Chris isn't covering news about the Canadian cell phone industry being a North American (and almost global) leader? Too busy harping on a $25 fee for networks upgrading from CDMA to HSPA (which by the way, is probably another first in North America, isn't it?)
TouchMe: Telus & Bell will launch their joint UMTS/HSPA+ network across Canada in late October 2009 (21 Mbps max, not 7.2 Mbps max). Vancouver will get the launch sooner (early September 2009). That means that Vancouver will only have UMTS/HSPA+ from Telus for a while, as Rogers has still not upgraded from UMTS/HSPA to UMTS/HSPA+ in Vancouver as they have done in Toronto.
This should mean much better competition across Canada (lower prices), and hopefully a faster move to LTE for Rogers/Fido and Telus/Bell. Rumour has it that Telus/Bell will have LTE in place by late 2010, and I'm guessing Rogers/Fido will likely launch LTE at around the same time.
Hopefully this indicates progress and the other service providers in Canada (and North America) will follow suit.
From the original HSPDA launch:
"Rogers has introduced its 3G high-speed wireless network and Rogers Vision services in Moncton and Halifax. With this key expansion, Rogers claims to have become the most advanced network from coast to coast. Furthermore, Moncton and Halifax become the first cities in the Western Hemisphere to commercially introduce 7.2 Mbps wireless services."
It took them forever to expand beyond this too! I think I'll wait for the competition to rollout something in full, plus I can be released from the stranglehold that is the big red machine.
Manatees are weird!
I live in Windsor, Ontario... certainly not a big city by any means. We have ALWAYS had 3G here, it grows every few months and soon will be all of Essex county. We have 7.2Mbps here, it will only be a matter of time before we get 21Mbps here. As for bell and TELUS, 3G gives you simultaneous data and voice.... you don't have that on either of the two, but you do on Rogers and Fido. TELUS and Bell are more like 2.75G and not true 3G.
better to get it late.... than never eh?
poor AT&T customers!
This is a joke. I am living in Belleville, along the highway 401 corridor, and we are still waiting for 3G. Gimme a break.
Funny that they're rolling out this ultra fast network but they can't even get their base 3G network to provide decent speeds half the time.
At times I'm lucky to get 1/10'th of what 3G is supposed to provide. Dear Rogers, how about improving your "actual" speeds versus your "theoretical" speeds.