Canada’s Telus has joined its main wireless rivals Rogers and Bell in launching commercial 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile broadband services, promising peak download speeds of up to 75Mbps, with an expected average of 12Mbps to 25Mbps. The LTE service today went live in 14 metropolitan areas across Canada, including Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area, Kitchener, Waterloo, Hamilton, Guelph, Belleville, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax and Yellowknife. Telus says it plans to continue rolling out its 4G coverage to more regions, to reach more than 25 million Canadians by the end of 2012. Telus customers can initially choose from the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE tablet, the LG Optimus LTE smartphone or the Novatel Wireless Ovation MC679 4G LTE Mobile Internet Key modem. The LTE-capable Samsung Galaxy Note will also be available on 14 February. Eros Spadotto, Telus’ executive vice-president of Technology Strategy & Operations, noted that the operator is not introducing a new rate plan for LTE devices or charging a premium to use the new network.
Chinese vendor Huawei Technologies announced this week that it won a contract with Telus to provide LTE radio access network equipment across Canada.