Fastest Operators

Looking at top providers, TELUS was the fastest mobile operator in Canada in Q2-Q3 2019 with a Speed Score™ of 69.61, a 16.8% improvement over the same period the year before. Bell was second with 68.59 (up 17.5%) followed by Fido at 59.35 (30.3%), Rogers at 54.01 (31.8%), Vidéotron at 40.88 (8.8%) and Freedom Mobile at 29.05 (25.1%).

TELUS’ average speeds keep going up despite the fact that traffic also keeps increasing. Bell and TELUS share RAN (Radio Access Network) across Canada, but own separate network cores. That means that cell sites (eNodeB), spectrum and infrastructure equipment providing coverage and capacity are shared, while the backend responsible for authentication, billing, voice and messaging is managed separately. All the spectrum bands are shared, except for the 2300 MHz Band 30 that was initially only serving TELUS’ subscribers. This could be why both operators have nearly identical average speeds, with TELUS having a slight edge. It will be interesting to watch speeds further improve as the percentage of users with more capable modern devices increase.

After rolling out Gigabit Class LTE service back in 2018, Bell Mobility has continued expanding network capacity and adding layers of spectrum to its rich spectrum portfolio. Subscribers with capable devices are served with multiple low-band channels in the 700 MHz band, 850 MHz, multiple mid-band spectrum blocks in the 1900 MHz and 2100 MHz bands, and often two blocks in the 2600 MHz bands. This already rich amount of capacity is topped with multiple License Assisted Access (LAA) channels in the 5 GHz band at select locations. Although a holder of multiple low-band spectrum blocks, Bell decided not to acquire additional 600 MHz licenses in the recent spectrum auction. The operator also further increased its operating efficiency by sunsetting the legacy CDMA network back in April.

Rogers, with its own RAN and network core, has been delivering very competitive speeds with significant improvement year over year. Similarly to Bell and TELUS, the spectrum assets consist of low, mid and high band spectrum, enabling the right balance of reach and capacity. Rogers dominated the bidding in a recent 600 MHz spectrum auction, where they acquired 52 licenses covering 35.2 million people. This should pave the way for 5G deployment using greenfield spectrum assets ideal for broad coverage.

Rogers and its subsidiary Fido Solutions should have nearly identical speeds because both brands run on the same radio access network. However, a number of factors could affect the results in practice, including cell load, RF conditions, test locations and more.

Freedom Mobile’s LTE network is a combination of 2100 MHz band, 2500 MHz band, and 700 MHz band. Its relatively limited footprint relies on extended coverage through roaming agreements. Despite its limited coverage and capacity when compared to the biggest operators in Canada, Freedom still provides respectable average speeds sufficient for a rich media experience on the go.

Regional operator Vidéotron leveraged assets in the 700 MHz, 2100 MHz and 2500 MHz bands, to deliver competitive performance throughout Québec. At a recent 600 MHz spectrum auction Vidéotron secured 10 frequency blocks paving the way for future 5G deployments. In May, Vidéotron launched a 5G test site in Montreal’s Quartier de l’innovation in partnership with Ericsson.

The mysterious aspect of the Canadian wireless industry is the road to 5G. The operators aren’t rushing deployments and are instead still in the early stages of 5G testing. Only a small sliver of fresh spectrum (70 MHz) was made available earlier this year through the 600 MHz auction. The next big spectrum auction is scheduled for late 2020, when massive swaths of prime mid-band 3.5 GHz spectrum will be auctioned for commercial 5G use. The millimeter wave spectrum deployed for 5G in the U.S. will not be made available in Canada until the tail end of 2021.