TORONTO – Rogers Communications today announced the launch of a comprehensive Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless network technical trial with Ericsson Canada in the Ottawa area.
LTE is considered a 4G wireless technology that enables features like fast HD video streaming, gaming, communications, transactions and other connected experiences through mobile Internet. LTE allows significantly more data to pass through a network at speeds of up to 150 Mbps and may become the de-facto network technology in a few years (until the next one…).
"Our customers increasingly want anywhere, anytime access to information, communications, entertainment and transactional experiences on their device of choice," said Nadir Mohamed, president and CEO, in the press release.
“LTE is the next generation platform delivering superior mobile speed and functionality similar to what Canadians currently experience at home and at work (wired, that is). This technical trial is significant because it builds on our industry-leading networks and it sets the groundwork for our customers to do even more in the future."
Ericsson, in co-operation with Rogers, has been conducting LTE lab testing at its Ottawa Research and Development facility comparing speeds and performance of LTE technology in multiple frequency bands. Rogers will expand on this testing and move to a comprehensive technical trial of LTE on both low and high band frequencies across the Ottawa area.
"Through this trial we will validate how LTE technology will perform in real world situations across a variety of spectrum frequencies in urban, suburban, and rural environments," said Bob Berner, Rogers’ EVP, network and chief technology officer. "Furthermore, we will verify LTE data throughput speeds, performance quality, and interoperability of LTE with our existing advanced HSPA+ network ensuring that future commercial deployment enables the best customer experience.
The technical trial will initially use recently auctioned AWS spectrum. Rogers is also working with Industry Canada to secure a development license to use 700 MHz spectrum for the trial. Industry Minister Tony Clement told Cartt.ca recently he wants to get moving on further spectrum auctions very soon.
