Bell Mobility covers 70% of Manitobans with DC-HSPA+

Bell Mobility has announced the completion of the first phase of its HSPA+ mobile broadband network expansion in the province of Manitoba. Now it covers 70% of the province with data speeds of up to 42Mbps via dual carrier (DC) HSPA+ technology, with expected average download speeds of 7Mbps to 14Mbps.

The operator markets HSPA-based mobile services as ‘4G’, in line with most North American cellcos.

Bell’s national HSPA+ network (built via an infrastructure cost-sharing partnership with rival Telus) covered 97% of Canada’s population by the end of June 2012. The peak theoretical download/upload speeds was 21Mbps/5.76Mbps (typical 3.5Mbps-8Mbps download) whereas sections upgraded to DC-HSPA+ covered more than 70% of the country’s population by that date.

Bell also offers 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) services, which it launched in September 2011 before expanding to 16 cities by end-June 2012, offering handset, tablet and dedicated data device users typical speeds ranging between 12Mbps and 25Mbps, with peak theoretical speeds of up to 75Mbps.