Q&A with Telus on 4G

Last week Telus announced the arrival of its Dual Cell network, which could bring theoretical speeds of up to 42Mbps to their network, which doubles the HSPA+ technology being used today.  The initial rollout includes the greater Toronto area, Edmonton, Calgary, Fort McMurray, Whistler, Camrose, Winnipeg and the greater Vancouver area.  The usage of the term 4G elsewhere has been met with some confusion, as it was initially pegged for true 4G networks such as LTE and WiMax, but with the term getting wide use in the US for competing technologies, it’s not surprising that we’re seeing it happen here in Canada as well.

To get some clarification on the use of 4G, and what plans they have for LTE, we fired off some questions to Telus, and they were kind enough to answer…

With Telus launching calling what technically is still a 3G network 4G, it seems that you are taking the lead from US carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile. However both those carriers are competing with Verizon’s LTE & Sprint’s WiMax true 4G networks, so it makes sense,from a marketing perspective, for them to brand their enhanced 3G networks 4G. However in Canada, with no immediate launch of a true 4G network by anyone, why did Telus decide to brand the Dual-Cell network 4G?

• TELUS HSPA+ with Dual Cell network capability supports extremely fast download speeds and is an upgrade from initial HSPA technology. According to current International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standards as of last December 2010, we have branded our TELUS’ HSPA+ network a 4G network.

Bearing the above in mind, when you do finally roll out your 4G LTE Network how are you going to differentiate it from your existing Dual-Cell network, which will be also branded 4G?

• It’s coming but TELUS did not release any official date for LTE, please visit our TELUS website about our 4G definition on www.telusmobility.com/4G

Did Tony Clement stating that the auctions for 700Mhz & 2500Mhz LTE spectrum will not happen to at least late 2012 affect the decision to roll out the Dual-Cell network and brand it 4G today?

• We have announced our Dual Cell deployment back in August 2010 and used ITU’s definition from a news release back in December that gave a definition of 4G.

Also is Telus actively preparing to roll out LTE by starting to build infrastructure for it now, so when the spectrum is auctioned off as soon as you win what is needed the LTE network can be launched immediately?

• We didn’t release any public information at this time beyond our 2008 statement that our investment in HSPA technology was our path to deploy LTE in the future.

Initially Telus is only offering a datastick that is compatible with the new Dual-Cell network. How long before we can expect to see some handsets that also support these speeds?

• Dual Cell will be available first next month on Internet key but devices will follow in the coming months. Nothing we can confirm for now.

While there will not be a large selection of LTE handsets in 2011 we can assume that LTE & WiMax will be fairly widespread in the US, and even globally, by 2012. By then we can expect many of the premium smartphones being mainly released for LTE/WiMax networks. With the Canadian LTE networks potentially not launching until early 2013 have handset vendors committed to releasing competitive new hardware, that supports Dual Cell HSPA+,f or the next couple of years?

• We continue to work with manufacturers to offer devices for all the network we offer services on and it should be the same in the future.

While the recent news about Usage Based Billing does not directly affect wireless, the discussion surrounding it has been about usage caps and what are fair limits for Canadians. Wireless has always had much lower usage caps, and higher overage chargers, both on datastick and smartphone plans. While existing technologies and usage patterns show that most average subscribers do not use more than a couple of GB’s a month, at the most, the advent of new technologies, such as Dual-Cell and more advanced smartphones & tablets, will increase the demand for wireless data. How does Telus plan to address this increased demand, and are there plans to offer higher wireless data caps for Dual-Cell users, so they can take maximum advantage of the new speeds offered?

• TELUS has innovated year after year in its offers to reflect the demand brought on the market with these new technologies. We launched last fall new flex plans to help customers get a fair price when going over their data allotment here and there and we will continue to evolve our plans as we see demand evolving.