Last October two of Canada’s three major national wireless providers, Bell (BCE Inc) and Telus Mobility, announced a joint venture to build a shared next-generation network. This partnership started in 2001 and was supposed to increase competition against Rogers Wireless (Canada’s #1 wireless carrier by subscribers), since 2001 Telus and Bell have erected shared towers, specifically in the Atlantic Canada region. Because of the shared network Bell and Telus were able to introduce 1xRTT in the early part of the decade and EVDO in 2005 very rapidly. Telus and Bell operate CDMA networks (CDMA-2000 with 1X and EVDO support to be specific). However that seemed to be changing in October of last year (2008). [read this for more information]
In October of 2008 Bell and Telus announced that they would be building a shared next-generation network, using HSPA+. Let’s take that piece by piece:
- Bell and Telus are currently CDMA carriers
- EVDO is the 3G data network for CDMA
- HSPA+ is a 3G GSM-based technology
- Verizon uses CDMA in the US
- Rogers Wireless currently operates Canada’s only GSM network (ATT, T-Mobile in the US)
- Rogers has HSPA+ sectors in major Canadian centers, 3G in most major centers, and EDGE covering the remaining area
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