Rogers Communications lauched LTE service in Ottawa last week making it the first operator in Canada to offer LTE. The company plans to expand LTE to Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver later this year. By year-end 2012, Rogers plans to have LTE service available in 25 markets nationwide.
Rogers is offering customers a variety of price plans based upon their data usage: 1.5 GB of data for $46.80 a month, 3 GB of data for $62.46 per month, 6 GB of data for $78 per month or 9 GB of data for $93.71 per month. By contrast, Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) offers 5 GB of LTE service per month for $50.
Rogers initially launched with an LTE aircard from Sierra Wireless. It plans to offer LTE smartphones from HTC, Samsung and others by the Christmas holiday buying season.
Rogers announced earlier this year that Ericsson would be the sole supplier of its LTE network. At that time, the company said it would deploy LTE using Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum and will eventually deploy LTE in multiple bands. Industry Canada has yet to auction frequencies in the 700 MHz band.
Rogers has about nine million wireless subscribers, making it the largest wireless operator in Canada. It's competitor Telus has said it plans to launch LTE in 2012.
For more:
- See this Globe story
- See this Totaltelecom story
- See this Financial Post article
Related articles:
Canada's Rogers signs sole-source LTE network deal with Ericsson, plans to deploy services in 2011
Rogers will launch LTE in Q3; Qualcomm acquires assets of Rapid Bridge
Canada's Telus plans LTE network following dual-carrier HSPA+