> Headlines by Category

TELUS, Canada’s third largest wireless carrier, today announced that its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless service will be available on Friday, February 10. It will operate in 14 urban centres across Canada, including Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

Also this week, Telus and BCE signed deals with Chinese firm Huawei Technologies to provide LTE gear. The signing of those agreements were witnessed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper at a ceremony in Beijing.

There were 25.5 million wireless subscribers in Canada, as of Q3 2011, according to Wikipedia. The top 4 are:

• Rogers Wireless (9.2 million subscribers, includes Chatr brand and over 2 million Fido Solutions subscribers)
• Bell Mobility (7.3 million subscribers, includes Solo Mobile and Virgin Mobile Canada brands)
• TELUS Mobility (7.2 million subscribers, includes Koodo Mobile and Clearnet brands)
• SaskTel Mobility (568,904 subscribers, only available in Saskatchewan)

Bell and Rogers began offering LTE services on their AWS band in mid-2011. Meanwhile, a smaller player in Canadian telecom also made a new move this week, reports the Vancouver Sun. Primus Canada, which bills itself as Canada’s largest alternative communications provider, announced the expansion of its telephone and Internet services in Alberta and British Columbia on Thursday.

Rogers was the first company to launch a LTE network in Canada, kicking off its service in Ottawa last July. It plans to reach more than half the Canadian population by year’s end.

In 2008, 90 MHz of AWS spectrum was auctioned by Canada with specific blocks of spectrum set-aside explicitly for eligible bidders. As a result, 45% of the total 90 MHz of AWS spectrum was licensed to eligible new entrants, while the three largest wireless service providers, Rogers, Bell Mobility and TELUS hold approximately 55% of the spectrum (weighted by population).

In the 2008 Canadian AWS auction, Rogers was the biggest spender, dropping about $1 Billion to take almost the entire A block, 20MHz of new spectrum coast to coast. Bell and Telus split the E and F blocks for 30MHz of contiguous spectrum in every province with exception of Manitoba and Saskatchewan where only Telus won spectrum.

The Canadian government set aside 3 of the 6 AWS blocks (40% of actual spectrum) to new entrants. Furthermore, they’ve mandated the existing carriers to share towers and even share roaming spectrum to give these would-be entrants a fighting chance at achieving scale.

Industry Canada is set to auction off highly sought 700 MHz spectrum, this year. The major Canadian carriers view 700 MHz as an integral component in their LTE networks, while new entrants view it as their chance to seriously compete with the major players.

Canada’s big three wireless providers (TELUS, Rogers and Bell), are expected to bid on 700 MHz licenses in Canada, as well as newer wireless entrants such as Videotron, Wind and Mobilicity, are expected to provide competition.

Inukshuk Wireless, a joint venture of Bell Canada and Rogers, also established a Canada-wide wireless network in 45 major cities and more than 120 rural communities. It holds 2.6 GHz licenses across Canada, in all provinces and territories except Manitoba and Saskatchewan including Saskatchewan.

The Inukshuk network (map) was built using pre-WiMAX technology, which it is shutting down. One might speculate that Inukshuk will convert urban areas to LTE-A at some point in the future.