Bell and Telus are in a race to see who can support Quad Band LTE across Canada first, and so far we have a resounding tie.
Just a couple days apart, both companies announced the support of Quad Band LTE in roughly 40 markets across the country. This means that both carriers can hypothetically now support broadband speeds of up to 750 Mbps, with an expected average of about 22 to 174 Mbps.
The side-by-side announcements make sense when you take the network infrastructure sharing agreement the two companies have.
When the plans for these expansions were announced earlier this year, both Telus and Bell indicated that the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ will be the first smartphone that is capable of handling these higher broadband speeds. Both devices take advantage of Qualcomm’s Gigabit-capable X16 LTE modem, but do require a software update in order to be compatible.
Here is the full list of areas with Quad Band LTE availability for both carriers.
Alberta: Calgary, Airdrie, Sherwood Park, Edmonton, Fort Saskatchewan, St. Albert, Ponoka, Sexsmith, Redcliff, Slave Lake.
British Columbia: Vancouver, Fort St. John.
Newfoundland & Labrador: Bay Roberts, Mount Pearl, St. John’s.
New Brunswick: Dieppe, Edmundston, Moncton, New Maryland, Riverview.
Nova Scotia: Halifax, Dartmouth, Lake Echo, Middleton, Sydney Mines.
Ontario: Ancaster, Barrie, Brampton East, Burlington, Kitchener, London, Niagara Falls, Oshawa, Pickering, Scarborough, Welland.
PEI: Charlottetown.
Quebec: Montreal.