Rogers set to trial LTE

Canadian telecommunications provider Rogers Communications Inc. said it has started a LTE trial in the Ottawa area with network partner Ericsson Canada. The company said the trial will include tests in both low and high frequency bands across the market.
“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, EVP, Network and Chief Technology Officer, at Rogers. “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 in the 1.7/2.1 GHz band. Rogers is also working with Industry Canada to secure a development license to use 700 MHz spectrum for the trial.
In the United States, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility plan to use their extensive 700 MHz spectrum holdings to launch LTE services. Verizon Wireless also has a strong portfolio of AWS spectrum, but has not said whether it would use that spectrum to support LTE services. Verizon Wireless announced this week at the CTIA Enterprise & Applications event that it would commercially launch LTE services in 38 markets and 60 airports across the United States covering 110 million potential customers by the end of the year.
Rogers’ largest rivals, Telus Mobility and Bell Canada, recently installed HSPA+ technology alongside their CDMA-based networks on their way to eventually deploying LTE technology.