The move builds on the Canadian company’s plans announced earlier this year to launch LTE in major cities across the country by the end of 2011.
Rogers carried out technical trials of LTE last year in Ottawa and Montreal to prepare for deployment in 2011.
“Ottawa has always been a hotbed for innovation, making it the ideal city to launch our LTE network in Canada,” said John Boynton, executive VP and chief marketing officer at Rogers.
Major telcos Bell, Telus and Rogers are all racing to deploy Canada’s first 4G network. Telus said it will launch LTE for the first time next year while Bell plans to launch services in specific markets this year. If Rogers is successful this summer, it will become the first commercial LTE provider in the country.
Dan Schieler, SVP, mobile computing for Sierra Wireless added: “LTE significantly improves the speed and quality of the customer experience – it is where the global wireless industry is moving.”
In April Rogers announced that it would launch LTE in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver this year and then in another 25 Canadian markets in 2012.
