Bell is expected to launch its 5G network in 28 additional markets in 2020, according to Mirko Bibic, the president and CEO of the Canadian carrier,.
In June, the Montreal-based carrier announced the launch of 5G service in Montreal, the Greater Toronto Area, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.
“I’m really pleased with our competitive positioning here on 5G because our speeds are 1.7Gbps, which is [the] fastest in the industry. And we’re going to be even faster next year when 3.5GHz spectrum becomes available for mobile,” the executive said during a call with investors, as reported by RCRWireless.
Further, Bibic stated that the company has seen a lot of growth in the 5G space in both the residential and enterprise sectors.
“I see growth potential in the consumer space, like when we upgraded from 2G to 3G, 3G to 4G etc. There’s always a spike in penetration, smartphone adoption, especially usage, and that drives revenue. There will be a multitude of use cases on the enterprise side and on the IoT side, which we’ll be in a great position to capitalize on, especially when you think about our distribution advantage with BBM (Bell business markets) and our enterprise strength,” said Bibic.
Back in June, Bell announced that it selected Ericsson as its 5G network equipment supplier. The Canadian carrier previously announced a partnership with Nokia.
It’s important to note that Bell’s 5G network currently uses AWS (Advanced Wireless Services) band spectrum.
The Canadian government recently pushed back the 3500MHz spectrum auction by six months to June 15th, 2021. 3500MHz and 3800MHz spectrum is considered key to 5G as its able to transport data at 5G speeds at a reasonable range.
Source: RCRWireless
Correction:08/07/2020: Bell announced on June 25th that it will not be charging for use of its 5G network.
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