According to the most recent Fido press release, the Canadian telco will be bringing LTE service nation-wide beginning later this summer. Major cities will be the first to adopt the new network, including Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Montreal and St. Johns, with smaller cities receiving the same speeds later this year.
LTE will allow for much faster download speeds, enhancing Smartphone experiences, as more and more people are moving towards data plans and using their phones as their main internet tool. LTE enabled Smartphones will be available later this year in order to take advantage of this new network capability. Fido’s network currently spans 96% of Canada’s populace.
The presser also announced the Fido Mobile Hotspot, the company’s first LTE-enabled tool that will create a Wi-Fi hotspot on demand, akin to the Rogers Rocket Stick. Said device will allow 10 devices to connect simultaneously.
The goal is to be providing 20 million users by the end of 2012. Beyond the big cities mentioned prior, LTE rollouts will be occurring in other cities such as Moncton, Sherbrooke, Kingston, Oshawa, Hamilton, Windsor, Waterloo, Regina, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Kelowna to name a few. Other cities included in the rollout can be found in the press release itself.
Data plans are expected to begin at $10/month and feature similar speeds then those of Rogers, Fido’s owner. We are excited to hear the news that more and more Canadians will have the highest network speeds possible. Telus, Rogers and Bell have all made similar LTE announcements this year.