Telus promises faster wireless in early 2011

Telus promises faster wireless in early 2011

Iain Marlow

Telus Corp. says it has begun work that will double the speed of its advanced wireless data network by early 2011.
The
current HSPA+ technology can support theoretical speeds of around 21
megabits per second (mbps), though conditions have to be close to
perfect to achieve anything close to that speed.
The new upgrades,
in lab testing, allowed certain “dual cell” technology devices to reach
up to 42 Mbps in perfect conditions, though the company said it expects
average speeds to be around 8 Mbps – roughly double the actual,
achieved speeds of current users.

The speed varies based on
several factors, including the distance between a user and the cell
tower and how many subscribers are using data services in that area at
the time.
As new wireless players, such as Wind Mobile and
Mobilicity, push in and take market share in the low end of the market,
the incumbents are now battling for dominance in the more lucrative
high-end of the market.
“We don’t spend this much money for the sake of bragging rights,” said Eros Spadotto, Telus’sexecutive vice-president of technology strategy, in an interview.
Rogers
Communications Inc. has long been dominant in this space, with about
twice as many smart phone customers as either BCE Inc.'s Bell Mobility
or Telus. But Bell and Telus have gained a lot of territory since the
two companies teamed up to launch an advanced 3G network in November,
2009.
Ronald Gruia, a telecom analyst with Frost & Sullivan in
Toronto, said the network upgrade would allow Telus users to have a
“4G-like” experience before the actual launch of next-generation, Long
Term Evolution (LTE) 4G networks in Canada. The theoretical speeds of
LTE networks range anywhere from 50 to 100 Mbps.
However, the
software tweaks enabling the new speeds will not affect any current
Telus user, since there are no dual cell devices currently operating on
the network; and it won't be a significant factor until the technology
becomes commercially available by the first fiscal quarter of 2011.
“It's
a way for them to differentiate themselves,” Mr. Gruia said, noting
that one key advantage is simply being able to say that they have the
“fastest” network currently available.
Mr. Spadotto said that, at
first, only new data sticks will be able to take advantage of the
technology. After about 12 to 15 months, there will be new smart phones
available that can utilize the new network speeds.

FFS, I can't properly space them for some reason, it always screws up some way or another.