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!
