Bell announced Monday that Rohde & Schwarz SwissQual AG, an independent network testing firm based in Switzerland, has ranked its 5G+ network the fastest in Canada.
The telecom placed first in two of the firm’s categories, Fastest 5G+ Network Data Speed Performance Score and Fastest 5G Network Data Speed Score, based on drive testing across 19 Canadian communities.
Rohde & Schwarz CEO Axel Hansmann said the finding came out of the firm’s testing this year. “Based on our 2026 testing of national wireless networks in Canada, Bell delivered the top 5G/5G+ data performance, meaning subscribers can experience faster speeds and more reliable connections, especially in busy urban areas,” he said.
Drive testing means engineers running test equipment along set routes, which produces clean, controlled comparisons but only covers where they actually drove. 19 communities is a narrow slice of the country with thousands of them, and Hansmann’s own framing points to busy urban areas, so this isn’t a statement about how Bell performs in rural Saskatchewan or on a highway in northern Ontario.
The announcement comes less than a week after Bell touted its sweep of 10 Ookla Speedtest Awards, including Fastest 5G Network and Best Mobile Network. Bell framed the two together as validation from both consumer testing and engineering analysis, which is fair enough, though the two firms measure different things. Ookla pulls from millions of speed tests run by regular folk on their own smartphones wherever they happen to be, while Rohde & Schwarz sends out a controlled fleet. Neither approach is wrong, but they answer different questions.
In Ookla’s report covering the second half of 2025, Bell led on 5G speed while Rogers took best mobile video experience and Telus scored highest for network consistency. Telus has spent years touting Opensignal recognition and previously held Ookla’s fastest mobile network title in Canada for ten consecutive rounds. Depending on the metric and the year, all three carriers have had a turn at the podium.
Bell says it has invested billions in broadband and wireless infrastructure since 2020 and has upgraded hundreds of towers from 4G to 5G this year. The company also points to the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Montréal, the Canadiens’ playoff run and Canada’s summer of soccer as examples of the network holding up under heavy demand, though it hasn’t published data behind that claim.
Update July 20, 2026: A Bell spokesperson clarified to iPhone in Canada that the company funded this Rohde & Schwarz study.
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I don’t need the fastest. I need fast enough and the cheapest.