Rogers Wireless Begins 21Mbps HSPA+Network

It seems that Rogers is getting really aggressive lately. After announcing netbooks with embedded 3G wireless, and giving their Internet users 50 Mbps speeds, Rogers has announced that they will become the first telco in North America to roll out HSPA+ which will give users speeds of up to 21Mbps anywhere they can get a cell signal.

While this is cool for Canadians and a pretty big coup for Rogers, there is one thing that stops me from jumping up and down. Canada has some of the highest cellular phone rates in the world. So it really doesn’t matter how fast my cellular data connection goes if I can’t afford it. How high are Canadian cell phone rates? Here’s an example of what the rest of the world pays.

While on a business trip to Germany last year, I sat beside a guy on a high speed train from Aachen to Frankfurt Airport who had a laptop with embedded 3G (7.2Mbps which is faster than my DSL connection at home). We got to talking and I asked how much he was paying for that connection. He was paying 35 Euros a month for unlimited cellular data access to the Internet. That’s about $50 USD for an UNLIMITED connection.

I can’t think of many telcos in Canada who have unlimited plans that are that reasonable (if they have them at all). Oh yeah, his connection was live even when the train went into tunnels at 250 + Km/h. As an aside, my Blackberry was working in said tunnels as well, which is not the case in Canada. So it shows how evolved the cellular infrastructure is in Europe as well as the fact that their rates are far more reasonable.

Perhaps this will be solved when Globalive jumps into the fray? One can only hope. But until then, enjoy those high speeds…. If you can.

[ via Press Release ]

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