Rogers Takes HSPA+ Service Live In Canada [Hits Five Major Cities, Three Times Faster Than HSPA, 21Mbps, New Rocket Stick Modem]

     It’s pretty well known that wireless Internet speeds in North America are lagging greatly behind those of the rest of the modernized world. Blame it on government bureaucracy or unwillingness to spend the capital, whatever the case the public has been starving for faster speeds with little hope of relief. Today, Canadian telecomm giant Rogers has announced a North American first. Rogers network will be evolving from 3.5G (up to 7.2 Mbps) to HSPA+ (up to 21 Mbps). The nationwide rollout is ongoing and has started this month with Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto Ottawa and Montreal.      The announcement from Rogers Wireless today about the commercial availability of their next generation High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) network will have Canadians salivating at their newfound access speeds while the Americans continue to hang out in their slow-speed slums. Rogers began the Canada-wide deployment of a 21 Mbps HSPA+ wireless network earlier this year, effectively tripling the current download speeds of Canada’s fastest high-speed mobile network, making the Rogers network up to seven times faster than the Canadian competition. This welcome network upgrade has Rogers sitting at the top of the North American network speed food chain and it seems like it will remain there for some time. T-Mobile and Verizon are both expected to enter the race in late 2010 with their competitive offerings of HSPA+ and 4G respectively.

      As part of the package, Canadians will be able to access the updated network through the new 21 Mbps HSPA+ Rocket Mobile Internet Stick. The USB HSPA+ Rocket Mobile features a “no CD required” installation process for both Windows and Mac, integrated antenna for maximized reception performance (tri-band support for HSPA+ as well as earlier HSPA standards), and sports peak upstream speeds of 5.76Mbps. It also handles quad-band EDGE and GPRS in fringe areas. The nifty little stick also has a micro SDHC slot that gives users the option of adding up to 8GB of data storage.

Now don’t go getting all excited to get started right away. Service doesn’t effectively starts until September 28th when the new Rocket Stick ships for $75. This, of course, comes along with a three-year contract or $200 contract-free. The rollout will continue with additional cities being added over the coming months. For more information on Rogers HSPA+ network.