Rogers has announced that it has expanded its 5G service to over 50 new towns and cities in several provinces.
The Toronto-based national carrier notes that it plans to reach a total of more than 60 markets by the end of the year. Rogers says that this marks its next big step following its initial launch in January when it rolled out the service in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
“From small towns to metropolitan centres, Rogers 5G network is now the largest in Canada reaching across provinces and regions to the following places, bringing Canadians and businesses the very best in wireless technology to their own neighbourhood,” Rogers stated in a press release.
Here’s the full list of cities and towns included in the expansion:
It’s worthing mentioning that 5G adoption in Canada will take some time, as 5G networks require consumers to have 5G-capable smartphones.
Rogers is currently using 2.5GHz, AWS and 600MHz spectrum to provide its 5G coverage. The carrier has also deployed Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) technology in several markets to allow for spectrum to be used for 4G and 5G simultaneously.
It plans to add additional frequency bands over time. It notes that it invested $1.7 billion CAD in 2019 to acquire 600MHz spectrum licenses.
The carrier is solely partnered with Ericsson as its 5G vendor for its full network infrastructure including the core and radio access network.
“Strong digital infrastructure and investments in 5G are critical to fuel productivity and innovation across this country now, as we power out of COVID-19, and in the future as we reset the competitive landscape for Canada, globally.” said Rogers CEO Joe Natale in the press release.
The carrier says that overtime, 5G will introduce new capabilities that are more advanced than previous generations of wireless technology. It notes that with ultra-low latency, the lag between sending a request and the network responding will theoretically drop to one millisecond.
Rogers was the first Canadian carrier to launch its initial 5G network. Montreal-based national carrier Bell followed suit in June, and Vancouver-based Telus launched its initial 5G network a week later.
You can read MobileSyrup‘s in-depth look at Rogers’ initial 5G network here.
Source: Rogers
