Thanks to the domestic roaming agreements it inked with incumbents, Wind Mobile increased its coverage by 14% in December. Now, presumably, all carriers will follow Wind Mobile’s example and extend their network coverage with the help of domestic roaming agreements, a document obtained by MobileSyrup suggests.
The internal document comes from Rogers and reveals that Canada’s biggest carrier will be introducing “Extended Coverage” by the end of this month, or by the end of February at the latest. Since domestic roaming agreements were already signed between Rogers, Bell, TELUS, and Videotron, it was just a matter of time before the carrier started extending coverage and offering a better customer experience in areas with poor service.
“We are committed to bringing the best possible network experience to our customers. To let customers use their devices in locations they couldn’t before, we are partnering with other network providers to offer Extended Coverage at no additional charge,” the Rogers document reads.
When the extended network goes live, Rogers and Fido customers will be notified that they are practically using another carrier’s network with a new carrier title, “Rogers — EXT” and “Fido — EXT.”
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GPRS??
HSPA.
EDIT: I think it would go against CRTC regulations to bottleneck the speeds to a standstill. Most likely not LTE though.
The example screen shots show GPRS data, which is why the poster was asking.
Its 3G, its old term for it, it covers from Edge to 3G. I think
No, GPRS is packet radio, original 2G. It’s a generation before EDGE and it maxes out at less than 60kbps.
Unless this is all free, forever, including voice and data, I can see people getting screwed when they’re on the periphery of two networks aka you think you’re calling or downloading from your provider, but your phone decided to pick up a stronger signal on a roaming partner and “bam”. This used to, and probably still does happen, to people living near the US border.
On the plus side, maybe you’ll be able to use a Rogers phone somewhere in Saskatchewan besides Saskatoon or Regina! Though that would require Sasktel being onboard I imagine.
Rogers phones work fine in Toon.
On Telus plan from BC and have no probs.
4 bars.
U hiding under a rock deeper then Sask yo?
Also nipawin, PA, north Battleford, Emma n candle lake.
All these places have 2G only with Rogers. The only Saskatchewan 3G coverage with Rogers is in Saskatoon, Lloydminster (on the Alberta border) and Regina. The only Saskatchewan LTE coverage is in the same three places. This ignores spillover from Alberta/Manitoba sites but it’s pretty sad that in Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Yorkton, the Trans-Canada Highway, etc., all you get for data is EDGE.
Probably free if you have a Share Everything plan starting at $90
Free if you have a $150 plan 😉 Instead you’ll end up with a $100 roaming charge for all other plans.
This is live now. I connect to Rogers-EXT in the basement of my office.
Im pretty sure it’ll be up to HSPA, and its free. It is included with the plans. On Fido and Rogers.
This is fantastic news for driving the highways etc.
Extended coverage my **s. For how much we have to pay as Canadians for our plans compared to the rest of the world, and how lousy a coverage we get, this shouldn’t be ‘extended coverage’, this should be part of our regular coverage. This is just a sneaky way to get people to renew their plans, enslaving us to yet another 2 year long contract.