We know there isn’t a lot of love up North for Rogers but they’ve got a bit of a surprise in store for their customers, including those with Apple’s iPhone. The mobile network announced today that they were beginning deployment of the next generation 21Mbs(!!) HDSPA+ Network. To those of us down South, that might be a little off-putting because we’ve been told that our "next generation 7.2Mbs Network" was coming at some point in the future by AT&T.
Oh yeah, Rogers has had the 7.2Mbs network deployed since last year and iPhone 3GS users in Canada have enjoyed its use since release.
Rogers Wireless today announced it has begun the Canada-wide deployment of a 21 Megabits per second (Mbps) high-speed HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access Plus) wireless network, following the successful expansion and doubling of speed of its high-speed network to 7.2 Mbps last year. Starting in August, Rogers will progressively increase wireless network download speeds up to 21 Mbps in the Greater Toronto Area, and expand quickly over the coming months to other cities across the country.
Interesting strategy. Pick your biggest and most cosmopolitan city to roll out your next generation network. Why not cities like Baltimore and Portland (no offense, lovely city)? Yes, WiMAX, you are your own worst enemy.
While the current generation iPhone won’t be able to pick up that kind of speed, most Rogers iPhone customers have signed life long pacts in blood (3 year) subsidies so they’ll still be stuck to Rogers when we are using flying cars to get to work. The immediate benefactor of these higher speeds will be computer users who use 3G data cards.
Down South, the best hope you’ll have to see those kind of speeds is if Verizon rolls out the US’s first LTE 4G network sometime soon or if some bigwig at Sprint decides to bring WiMax to your town.
"With the exponential growth of smartphones, application stores, mobile Internet sticks and embedded laptops and netbooks, Canadians are embracing wireless data and services like never before," said Rob Bruce, President, Rogers Wireless. "The super-charged data speeds achieved with Rogers’ 21 Mbps upgrade will enable us to support more customers with the most innovative mobile services well into the future, while our customers will experience mobile broadband at speeds like what they experience at home and at work."
As well they should support their high end smartphone customers. Rogers released very good earnings news today against the hard hit wireless industry.
Wireless Delivers Strong Subscriber Growth, Historically Low Postpaid Churn, 38% Wireless Data Revenue Growth, and 49% Network Revenue Margins…blahblah
Churn rate low huh? Maybe that has something to do with that 3-year iPhone subsidy.
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