MTS, Rogers speeding up wireless data

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/09/2010 (5711 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MTS and Rogers wireless users in Manitoba will have access to super-charged downloads as much as seven times faster than current speeds, putting live mobile video calling and fast movie downloads within reach sometime early next year.

That’s when MTS and Rogers are expected to complete the new HSPA (high-speed packet access) network in Manitoba.

Rogers has already upgraded its Winnipeg facilities to HSPA.

The new technology platform is the next generation of wireless networks and will mean that speeds for mobile data downloading on wireless devices will be similar to what people now experience on digital subscriber line (DSL) systems in the home

It also means that MTS wireless customers will have better roaming access across the country, through much of Europe and elsewhere around the world as the HSPA technology is more widely deployed.

At Telecom 2010, a wireless technology trade show organized by MTS’s largest dealer, IDC Communications, wireless users got some insights into what’s coming for mobile wireless.

“It’s true that data is now driving the wireless market,” Jarrett Bishop, chief operating office of IDC, said at the show Friday. “A few years ago, data would have made up five per cent of our customers’ usage. Now it’s more than half.”

Kelvin Shepherd, president of Manitoba operations for MTS Allstream, said: “The HSPA network is essentially the same technology path all the major carriers are taking. This puts us in lockstep with the industry.”

He said the rollout of the new network will also mean an increased number of handset options for MTS wireless subscribers. For instance, devices made by companies like Nokia and Ericsson only operate on HSPA or its associated global system for mobile communications (GSM) networks.

MTS’s current network using CDMA (code division multiple access technology) will continue to operate for some time and all existing phones will continue to work. But to access the greater speeds when the new network is switched on, new handsets will be required.

The new network would also be compatible with the iPhone, but MTS is not saying whether that will one of the new handset offerings.

Sara Holland, a spokeswoman for Rogers Communications, Canada’s largest provider of wireless voice and data communications services, said the new Manitoba network will bring expanded and improved wireless coverage for its customers in the province.

“Rogers already offers service in Winnipeg and southern Manitoba and is expanding into Manitoba’s northern communities, bringing choice in wireless solutions for the first time,” she said.

Iain Grant, a veteran telecom consultant with the Seaboard Group, said although the Canadian wireless scene was once considered a backwater by international standards, the HSPA buildup across the country — Bell and Telus are also upgrading their networks — will mean good wireless data service across Canada.

“We’re now at the leading edge,” he said.

Although the new system has the potential to be seven times faster than the existing ones, that will depend on the capabilities of the device being used and the level of traffic on the system.

But the people who might experience the most immediate and dramatic improvement in service are rural residents who don’t currently have access to high-speed Internet.

When the HSPA network is up, those people will be able to purchase a data plan and a wireless Internet stick that will provide Internet speeds — through a wireless service — that are not available to them now.

Commercial applications for wireless mobile are also becoming more obvious. Shepherd said more than half the wireless phones MTS is selling are smartphones.

Bill Stertz, head of commercial operations for Landville Drywall of Landmark, said the use of smartphones adds all sorts of efficiencies for his business and there is no concern about additional cost.

“It saves us money,” he said. “It means when we are out at a job, we can send our guys electronic drawings on their phone, where in the past we would have had to run around with paper versions.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca