Apple Plans First Two-Hour Hall H Panel at San Diego Comic-Con
Cast members from Widow's Bay, Matchbox The Movie, Mayday, Dark Matter, and Silo will be in attendance.
Ottawa Is Stopping Rogers, Bell and Telus From Hoarding the Fastest 5G Spectrum
The federal government wants to bring faster 5G service to more Canadians and is taking steps to make it harder for the big telecoms to hoard all the airwaves.
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada announced new rules Tuesday for an upcoming wireless spectrum auction set for October 2027. The auction will hand out licences for millimetre wave (mmWave) spectrum. This is the ultra-fast 5G that’s been available in the U.S. but has been lagging behind here in Canada, since the spectrum wasn’t available yet to telecoms.
Simply put, mmWave is a high-frequency, short-range wireless technology operating between 30 GHz and 300 GHz that delivers ultra-fast data speeds and massive bandwidth for 5G networks.
To prevent incumbents such as Rogers, Telus and Bell from buying up everything, the feds are putting a cap on how much spectrum any single bidder can walk away with, giving smaller carriers a real shot at competing.
Ottawa also wants to cut down the bureaucratic headache of building new cell towers. The current approval process is slow and expensive, and the government is proposing to replace it with a digital portal where companies can file applications and locals can weigh in online. The idea is to speed things up without cutting communities out of the conversation.
“Reliable, affordable connectivity is essential to Canada’s economic growth, public safety and quality of life. By making more spectrum available and streamlining infrastructure deployment, the Government of Canada is enabling the next generation of wireless technologies while improving services for Canadians across the country,” said Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions.
The auction will put 4.8 GHz of spectrum up for grabs across the 26 GHz and 38 GHz bands, with an extra 850 MHz set aside for a separate licensing process later on. ISED says Canadians and industry players can currently weigh in on the proposed tower approval changes through an ongoing national consultation. The spectrum isn’t taking place until 2027, and after that it will take telecoms to implement, so mmWave is still years ago. Things happen a wee bit slowly in Canada, eh?
Apple first launched 5G support in 2020, starting with the iPhone 12, leveraging mmWave in the U.S. Since Canada lacked mmWave, iPhones sold here had different antenna band locations on these devices compared to Canadian models.
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
Other articles in the category: News
Apple TV+ Unveils August Friday Night Baseball Schedule
Apple and MLB have officially locked in a packed August schedule for Friday Night Baseball doubleheaders streaming exclusively on Apple TV+.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Leaked Renders Reveal Major Redesign
Massive new leaks have completely spoiled Samsung's upcoming July 22 Unpacked event by revealing the all-new Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra.
The value of mmWave has really yet to be shown on a wide scale. It has very little propagation range, so it can’t help FWA and will require significant capital investment to deploy with new radios on towers and small cells in urban areas. Since just about every carrier is cutting back capital spending at the altar of debt management and shareholder “value”, it’s going to be interesting to see how much they’re willing to spend and the conditions the government will put on deployment.
It’s essentially useless. Regular old 5G+ can already get over 1gbps, and unlike mmWave it doesn’t basically require direct line of sight to the tower. In what use case does someone need more than 1gbps speed on their cell phone, and is willing to give up the flexibility of not requiring line of sight to get it?
‘We want to make wireless affordable’ says the Gov, while they sell bandwidth to the highest bidder, driving up prices. Make it make sense.
So like every single auction to date, some new entrant with no history of building anything in Canada will buy up the spectrum, hold it for the minimum possible amount of time then sell it, of their whole company, for a huge profit to whichever incumbent is willing to pay. Consumers gain nothing, the entrepreneur who bought the spectrum makes a fortune, and everyone pays higher prices. Yay for Canadian “competition”
LOLZ
Another fart in the Wind Mobile, just like last time? 🤣
I’m with Telus. The 5G network is so bad, I just stick with using LTE. The random lags, spotty service, and poor indoor coverage drives me nuts.
I get over 800mbps on Telus 5G in Vancouver
Lets be honest, unless a 4th player can somehow gain access to massive capital, all this set aside spectrum will go to waste for the next decade. It is sad but I would rather see the gov set stricter rules against the big 3 than waste this valuable spectrum for the next 10+ year when it will eventually end up in the hands of a big 3.
Outside of Videotron or Eastlink, who really is a 4th player in the Canadian mobile industry anyways?
The anti-wireless faction of
the delusional fringe is going to be using this digital avenue to try and oppose every single carrier (big or small) from building out towers. This is an obvious one.
They are going to be making up bogus reasons and excuses, irrational ones at that and likely using tens (maybe more) of accounts to make it look like everybody is opposing network expansion, however that isn’t going to work for them.
I could see the big
cartel three bitching about this among themselves. Hahahaha. Too bad.
We need far more competition than their illusions of it.