Industry Canada has received its payments from telcos from the 700MHz wireless spectrum auction and licenses have been delivered. Rogers spent $3.29 billion for the spectrum and was the only carrier to secure two 12MHz blocks of contiguous, paired 700MHz lower band spectrum in every market nationwide, which means faster downloads and less buffering when it comes to video streaming.
Today, the company issued a press release to say NHL fans will benefit from the spectrum, which also reiterates its investment in hockey. Earlier this year, Rogers inked a 12 year deal with the league worth $5.2 billion, giving the carrier complete broadcast rights across all platforms in Canada.
Guy Laurence, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rogers, had this to say:
“We went into this auction with a clear plan to win the best spectrum for our customers. There is clear demand for the ultimate video experience and it will be a big part of how we bring the NHL to hockey fans,”
Rogers says during the Olympic men’s hockey final, data usage by customers surged by 50 percent on smartphones and tablets.
Peter Rysavy, President of Rysavy Research says “Rogers has emerged as an LTE powerhouse,” since it has both A and B band contiguous spectrum, giving the company a “significant advantage” compared to competitors with split lower and upper 700MHz bands.
Rogers says the 700MHz spectrum is set to be deployed this year and existing LTE devices will be compatible.
Faster data is always a good thing, but it will cost you if you’re a heavy data user and incur overages. Luckily, we have apps such as DataMan Next (free until April 4) to track your data usage in real-time.
