As of November 5, 2009, the four major Canadian wireless carriers consisting of Rogers, Fido, Bell, and Telus are all finally running HSPA+ with network speeds of up to 21Mbps.
For a country that is traditionally viewed as behind the technology curve, I feel pretty good about this. Not only do our four main carriers all have HSPA+ with 21Mbps speeds, but they all now carry the iPhone.
A few months ago we reported on the network speed differences between Rogers Wireless in Canada and AT&T in the USA. What we saw is that it sucks to be an AT&T customer, as Rogers Wireless network speeds totally blew AT&T out of the water. To think that AT&T customers pay $70+ for iPhone plans on that service makes me cringe.
So not to be outdone by everyone else, AT&T promised network upgrades on September 9, 2009. AT&T said they will roll out 7.2Mbps network speeds in six major American cities. Wait a second. What? 7.2Mbps? Hold on, that has to be a typo. Let me check the AT&T website:
Yikes. No typo after all. The “rollout plans” are definitely there for 7.2Mbps.
So in an attempt to improve customer service and improve their network, AT&T is rolling out (not currently implemented) 7.2Mbps service in six select American cities. Rogers and Fido have had 21Mbps (3 times the speed) for a few months now, and Telus and Bell both just rolled out their own 21Mbps network.
Over the last two years, Canadian carriers were running 7.2Mbps network speeds when AT&T was peddling along at 3.6Mbps. The Canadian carriers made the jump to 21Mbps pretty quick and AT&T is only just now rolling out 7.2Mbps and only to a tiny subset of the USA!
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again; I am proud to be Canadian. This is epic Canadian pride. Stand up and hold your iPhone high!
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are we able to take advantage of this 21Mbps network with our 3GS? or we need the next iPhone 4G to do that?
Can Iphone 3G take advantage of this speed?
I would personally prefer to get unlimited bandwidth at “only” 3.6Mbps rather than 1GB at 7.2Mbps for the same price… just sayin'.
Next iPhone
i dont know where else should i put this, mi iphone just stop working!!! i was talking on skype and then the signal droped, so i reboot it and the apple logo show and it stay there for hours! so i just restore it! i dont know why it happend i jailbreaked it the first day blakra1n was out and everything was working fine.
:**(***
Well, AT&T customers get unlimited data and no crazily expensive long distance charges. The standard package has 450 nation wide minutes. Okay, no tethering and SMS is included, but compared to Canada's outrageous phone rates it's not a really bad deal… Tethering with my iPhone her in Canada is indeed faster than my home DSL connection, but it also eats battery life. And most of the time that fast data is not used anyway since the slow part of displaying webpages on the iPhone is the rendering, not the downloading. Only with YouTube or other big downloads faster speeds make sense.
My wife just got a 3Gs with telus and i got over 6Mbps tonight with it. It's faster than our high speed on the computer. I get between 5 and 6 meg with most of the tests i have down with the phone since she got it last week. I'm with rogers with my 3G and I can't evan use it in our house, I lose signal as soon as I walk in the house :(. I think it will be time to switch to Telus when the new Iphones roll out next year.
Where are you located?
I have excellent Robber$ 3G service in Okotoks, just South of Calgary.
Next iPhone
So what can take advantage of those speeds? Not the turbo sticks Bell and Rogers offer. Certainly not the iPhone.
For that matter, the iPhone 3GS can't even seem to get more than about 3.5Mb/s on Rogers from what I've seen – and that's only in a few areas. Usually get 1.5 or 2.0. The 3GS is supposed to support 7.2, but mines never gone over 3.5.
Well it will be nice once we are able to have these speeds 🙂
This is a great story, but I've never seen speeds above 2.5 mbps on my iPhone 3GS, which is capable of up to 7.2 mbps.
I've hit 4mbps on the phone test, tethered up to 5.8mbps.
Lol same here. Weak! 😛
Just did a test in downtown Toronto. Max 3G speed reached is 1.3Mps download. Howe pitiful… are we sure this supposedly 21Mps is up and alive? I'm a Fido customer
Must be proud of the oligopoly we have here, and also the prices charged for cell service
proud?? ashamed!!!
it's disgrace..
anyone knows when new cellphone companies arrive?
I paid $30 for 6GB which is more than enough. I've never ever used more than 5GB per month.
I am willing to pay for fast service than being cheap for slow speed. My average speed is at 3Mbps on iPhone and 5Mbps when I am tethering.
Agreed.
I am Rosedale, Ontario.
I am Rosedale, Ontario.