Bell Canada claims that its network is the first in North America capable of delivering quad-band LTE Advanced (LTE-A) services, which it says will deliver mobile broadband speeds of up to 750Mbps with the addition of 256 QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) technology. Bell CTO Stephen Howe said: ‘Bell delivered North America’s first tri-band LTE-A mobile service in 2015, and we’re proud to announce today that we’re first to successfully implement not only quad-band LTE-A but also the further 256 QAM enhancements that take Canadian mobile speeds to unparalleled new levels.’ Bell’s four-carrier aggregation leverages multiple bands of wireless spectrum to boost existing (triple-carrier [3C]) peak mobile data speeds from 335Mbps (expected average download speeds of 12Mbps to 100Mbps) to 550Mbps (expected average 18Mbps to 150Mbps). Combined with enhanced 256 QAM technology, Bell’s LTE-A network can deliver speeds up to 750Mbps, with expected average speeds of 22Mbps to 174Mbps.
Bell also announced that the new Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones are the first devices able to take advantage of its new network capability. Bell began selling the devices on 21 April, and in the coming months the Galaxy S8 and S8+ device software will be automatically upgraded to operate on Bell Quad Band 256 QAM LTE.