Rogers and Bell Launch Competing Wireless Broadband Services

7:40 am on April 3, 2006 | Category: Cellular, Corporate, Telecom Services, VoIP, Wireless, Wireless Technology

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Leading Canadian call phone carriers, Rogers and Bell, announced competing cellular broadband services last Friday, which will be offered over the jointly owned Inukshuk wireless network.

The new services will initially be available in 20 urban markets across the country, and be extended to reach more than two thirds of Canadians by 2008. This will include about 50 different under-served rural markets, where coverage will be rolled out over the next couple of years.

“We’re proud we brought this network to over 5 million consumers in Canada in a very rapid pace,” said Bell’s senior VP of consumer internet services, Charlotte Burke.

Bell’s new service, called Sympatico High Speed Unplugged, is priced at $45 a month for speeds of 512 kilobits/second, or $60 a month for a much faster 5 megabits/second version.

The Rogers service, meanwhile, is simply called Portable Internet, and costs $49.95/month for download speeds of 1.5 megabits/second. This is $6 more expensive than the company’s 3 megabits/second wired broadband service, but as industry consultant Jon Arnold puts it, “wireless is something people will pay a premium for.”

Although a big achievement for both customers, some analysts have raised concerns about the new network. The say that customers could use it to make wireless VoIP calls, potentially allowing them to cancel their existing Rogers or Bell mobile phone plans.

There are advantages, however, that could well be worth the risk. Inukshuk’s nationwide reach will help both Bell and Rogers expand their presence in western Canada’s ISP market, and pose greater competition to Telus and Shaw. They could then generate more revenue charging for internet-based services like VoIP and video streaming.

“It offers a whole other market that they’ve never been able to go after,” said telecom analyst Brian Sharwood, of SeaBoard Group.

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    Published by TeleClick Enterprises
    Edited by Jeremy Maddock