Bell Canada has begun the rollout of an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network offering mobile data download speeds of up to 220Mbps on selected CAT 6 devices including Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, Samsung Galaxy S6/Edge and HTC One M9. The following cities will be the first to receive Bell’s LTE-A services: Greater Toronto Area, Fredericton, Sydney, Charlottetown and Halifax. According to Canadian tech website MobileSyrup, Bell is providing the 220Mbps speeds via its Band 7 (2600MHz) spectrum and carrier aggregation between Band 4 (AWS) and Band 2 (PCS 1900MHz) to reach those speeds, whist Bell also operates LTE in the 700MHz band. Note that rival Rogers Communications switched on its first commercial LTE-A coverage zones last October.
Bell’s LTE (up to 150Mbps) network currently covers 91% of the population, while it plans to reach 98% by the end of this year.