Rogers Wireless

Rogers Wireless Inc. is a Canadian mobile network operator headquartered in Toronto, providing service nationally throughout Canada. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The company had revenues of just under $15.1 billion in 2018. Rogers Wireless is the largest wireless carrier in Canada, with 12.5 million subscribers as of Q2 2024.
The company was originally started by David Margolese as an expansion of his pager firm, Canadian Telecom, formed in 1978. With the 1983 introduction of AMPS, the first North American standard for cell phones, Margolese started plans to expand the company into this new market. This required large amounts of capital. A group of private investors consisting of Margolese, Ted Rogers, Marc Belzberg and Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien formed the newly renamed Cantel in 1984 and opening for service in July 1985.
Rogers purchased a controlling interest in the company in 1986, and bought out all of the shares of the other members by 1990. Starting in 1984, he also purchased an increasing share of CNCP Telecommunications, who operated a number of microwave relay networks suitable for carrying long distance calls. AT&T purchased a share of the new company, which also allowed Cantel to avoid using Bell Canada lines for access into the U.S. where possible. In 2003, the company was renamed Rogers Wireless, and in 2004 Rogers bought out AT&T's remaining shares. The same year, Rogers purchased Microcell Solutions, today known as Fido, Canada's first user of GSM systems as opposed to the more widespread CDMA. The company then expanded GSM service throughout their network.
Rogers Wireless has remained Canada's leading wireless provider throughout its history. This was aided in its early Cantel years by the slow uptake of cellular service by Bell Canada and the limited capital of smaller players like BC Tel and Shaw Communications. The use of GSM proved to be a major boon when the iPhone was released in 2007 and only ran on GSM. This handed the company exclusive access to this product until 2009 when Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility agreed to share towers and switch/upgrade to UMTS/HSPA in time to capture the lucrative international market as part of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Today, Rogers retains its preeminent position with widespread service, continued acquisitions, and the use of fighter brands like Fido and Chatr.

History

Rogers Wireless was founded by Ted Rogers, David Margolese, Marc Belzberg and Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien.
In 1978, future Sirius XM Radio founder David Margolese dropped out of university and founded the paging company Canadian Telecom. Foreseeing that cellular wireless technology would be used for more than simply voice calls, Margolese proposed a plan to obtain a license for Canada’s cellular phone rights. At the time, there were no such licenses or commercial cellular services in existence, as the wireless technology was still in the laboratory and experimental.
Needing significant financing, he approached Rogers Communications, which was owned by Ted Rogers, to partner with him. Rogers ultimately joined with Margolese, Marc Belzberg of First City Financial and Telemedia founder Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien to form Cantel, which Margolese named after Canadian Telecom. In 1984, the group was granted Canada’s national cellular license. Cantel launched service on July 1, 1985.
In 1986, Ted Rogers purchased a controlling stake in Cantel, which was at the time Canada's only national supplier of cellular telephone service. Over the next four years, Rogers bought out his partners, becoming the sole owner of Cantel. Cantel was later renamed Cantel AT&T, Rogers Cantel AT&T and Rogers AT&T Wireless; in December 2003, the company became known by its current name, Rogers Wireless, which led to Rogers purchasing AT&T’s 34% stake in the company for $1.8 billion the following year.

Spectrum purchases

Through spectrum auctions, Rogers has made the following purchases of spectrum:

Auction	Licenses won	Total price	Total population covered	Registered as
PCS - 2 GHz	23	$393,520,000	28,556,783	Rogers Wireless Inc.
2300 & 3500 MHz	33	$5,912,965	16,221,004	Rogers Wireless Inc.
2300 & 3500 MHz	49	$4,906,765	6,654,716	Rogers Wireless Inc.
AWS-1	59	$999,367,000	30,007,094	Rogers
700 MHz	22	$3,291,738,000	33,368,700	Rogers
2500 MHz	41	$24,086,270	11,637,606	Rogers Communications Partnership
600 MHz	52	$1,725,006,000	35,150,715	Rogers
3500 MHz	325	$3,325,600,269	34,955,719	Rogers Communications Canada Inc.
2500 & 3500 MHz	6	$2,669,510	487,007	Rogers Communications Canada Inc.
3800 MHz	860	$474,766,132	35,063,601	Rogers Communications Canada Inc.
3500/3800 MHz	1	$6,000	12,480	Rogers Communications Canada Inc.

Networks

Rogers operates GSM, UMTS, LTE, and 5G NR networks in all of Canada's provinces and offers roaming in Canada's territories.

AMPS

Rogers previously operated an AMPS/D-AMPS network in the 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands in Canada. The network was shut down on May 31, 2007.

GSM

Since 2002, the company's 2G GSM network with EDGE has operated in Canada. It provides compatibility for GSM-based devices, including those frequently used by international travelers. However, this technology is limited to speeds up to 236 kilobits per second, which is only about four times the speed of dial-up.
The 1900 MHz PCS network was shut down on June 7, 2021. 850 MHz was retired on December 31, 2021, for business class IoT devices. Other devices can still connect to the 850 MHz 2G GSM network in existing markets as of September 2023.

UMTS

In 2006, Rogers became the first Canadian carrier to operate a 3G UMTS/HSPA network, which was upgraded to HSPA+ in 2009. Enhancements included download speeds of up to a theoretical 21 Mbit/s. Further enhancements increased the download speeds up to a theoretical 42 Mbit/s.
Rogers' UMTS network coverage is in all Canadian provinces and operating on 850 MHz but is in none of the territories.
It is impossible to travel between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts in Canada without encountering a gap in cellular coverage as there are areas lacking cellular coverage in both British Columbia and Ontario.
The 1900 MHz PCS network was shut down on June 7, 2021 and the 850 MHz network will remain active until at least December 31, 2025.

LTE

In July 2011, Rogers was the first Canadian telecom operator to launch a commercial long-term evolution network. In May 2013, Rogers deployed LTE service on its 2600 MHz spectrum in some markets, which the company began marketing as LTE Max. LTE Max is available in a fraction of Rogers' LTE coverage area. On April 17, 2014, Rogers launched LTE service on its 700 MHz spectrum.
Rogers has not announced its goals for expanding LTE coverage across Canada, but announced plans in June 2014 to have LTE coverage expanded to 98.3% of the population of British Columbia by the end of 2016.
According to Rogers, as of December 31, 2016, its LTE coverage reached 95% of the Canadian population.
On March 31, 2015, Rogers Wireless launched voice over LTE, the first carrier in Canada to offer this service.
Cat-6 LTE-Advanced has been available since January 2015, through carrier aggregation of band 4 and band 7, with a maximum download speed of 225 Mbit/s.

5G NR

Rogers launched its 5G network in January 2020 and uses . The company stated that rollout will expand to use its further reaching 600 MHz spectrum later in the year for improved 5G coverage. As of December 16, 2020, Rogers offers both NSA mode and SA modes in select markets. Rogers was the first Canadian carrier to offer 5G service.
Rogers partnered with Swedish Telecom giant Ericsson to launch its 5G wireless technology. Today, Rogers's 5G network is live in more than 160 communities across Canada, including Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, and Montreal.

Radio frequency summary

The following is a list of known frequencies that Rogers employs in Canada:

Frequency range	Band number	Protocol	Class	Status	Notes
850 MHz CLR	5	GSM/GPRS/EDGE	2G	Active	Maintaining for international roaming and compatibility with older devices. Shut down planned, but date is yet to be announced.
850 MHz CLR	5	UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+	3G	Active	Actively being decommissioned / re-farmed to LTE/5G NR beginning August 7, 2025.
600 MHz DD	71	LTE/LTE-A/LTE-A Pro	4G	Active / Being Deployed	Being used alongside NR via DSS.
700 MHz Lower SMH A/B/C	12/17	LTE/LTE-A/LTE-A Pro	4G	Active	Additional LTE band for building penetration and rural coverage in select markets. Also being used to provide LTE Advanced coverage.
850 MHz CLR	5	LTE/LTE-A/LTE-A Pro	4G	Active	Used to provide LTE Advanced coverage in select markets.
1.7/2.1 GHz AWS	4/66	LTE/LTE-A/LTE-A Pro	4G	Active	Main LTE band providing complete coverage. Also being used to provide LTE Advanced coverage.
1.9 GHz PCS	2/25	LTE/LTE-A/LTE-A Pro	4G	Active	Used to provide LTE Advanced coverage in select markets. Also used for LTE based NTN satellite coverage.
2.6 GHz IMT-E	7/38	LTE/LTE-A/LTE-A Pro	4G	Active	Additional LTE band for more bandwidth in select markets. Also used to provide LTE Advanced coverage in select markets.
5.2 GHz U-NII	46	LTE/LTE-A/LTE-A Pro	4G	Active	License assisted access. Additional capacity in select cities.
600 MHz DD	n71	NR	5G	Active / Being Deployed	SA mode since Dec. 2020; in use with Dynamic Spectrum Sharing
1.9 GHz PCS	n2	NR	5G	Active / Being Deployed	SA mode; in use with Dynamic Spectrum Sharing
1.7/2.1 GHz Extended AWS	n66	NR	5G	Active / Being Deployed	SA mode since Dec. 2020; in use with Dynamic Spectrum Sharing
2.5 GHz BRS	n41	NR	5G	Active / Being Deployed	SA mode since Dec. 2020
3.5 GHz C-Band	n78	NR	5G	Active / Being Deployed	Spectrum acquired in 2021 auction. Active since June 2022.
3.8 GHz C-Band	n77	NR	5G	Active / Being Deployed	Spectrum acquired in 2023 auction.