Bell and its flanker brand Virgin Mobile has expanded its LTE Advanced network to cover several new regions as of July 4th.
The new markets are as follows:
- Quebec City, QC
- Saint-Annes-des-Monts, QC
- Rimouski, QC
- Bonaventure, QC
- High Level, AB
- Houston, BC
- Vanderhoof, BC
- Lilooet, BC
- Nakusp, BC
- Cherryville, BC
- Princeton, BC
- Lytton, BC
- Lake Cowichan, BC
- Coal Harbour, BC
Additionally, the carrier’s LTE-A network has expanded in the following areas:
- Montreal, QC
- Windsor, ON
- Grande Prairie, AB
- Slave Lake, AB
- Stettler, AB
- Calgary, AB
- Lethbridge, AB
- Fox Creek, AB
- One Hundred Mile House, BC
- Golden, BC
- Nelson, BC
- Cranbrook, BC
- Sechelt, BC
- Port Alberni, BC
LTE Advanced, or LTE-A, is an enhancement on LTE service that offers increased speeds and uses new technologies and network architectures that make it a bridge between 4G and the upcoming fifth generation of wireless networks.
Bell first launched its LTE-Advanced network in June 2015, starting the Greater Toronto Area and select maritime cities. Bell boasts speeds of up to 220Mbps with LTE-A, though states customers can expect average download speeds of anywhere from 12 to 100Mbps in the real world.
Virgin’s service runs off the Bell network, which itself is shared with Telus.
Recently, Bell and Virgin also rolled out Quad Band LTE, which has the capability to provide the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ (which stock Qualcomm’s new Gigabit-capable X16 LTE modem) with reported speeds of between 22 and 174 Mbps.
Correction June 10, 2017: This article has been updated to state that both Bell and Virgin expanded LTE-A networks simultaneously.
