Image by thskyt used under Creative Commons License — Image by thskyt used under Creative Commons License

Quebec's Videotron has become a very fierce competitor in the Quebec wireless services market. The end of September ended another great quarter with more subscribers and higher ARPU (Average Revenue per subscriber),

38000 new subscribers call Videotron wireless home (bringing the annual total to more than 111000). ARPU increased 6.5% year over year.

“the success of our new value-added plans, featuring higher data caps at impressive speeds, as well as our optimal selection of mobile devices. ”

— Videotron

Videotron's newly deployed LTE network (touches 90% of Quebecers) has been a huge success and is delivering speeds of up to 150Mbps. The analyst call also referred to discussions with Wind Mobile. I think a purchase of Wind by Videotron would be a fantastic move for the company and for consumers.

Videotron won spectrum in the 700Mhz auction in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and BC. Let's see if growth ambitions push Videotron to compete ocean to ocean.

Videotron report (Link)

Rogers has the fastest mobile network in Canada

October 16, 2013technologyEdward Kiledjian

The PCMag team visited all corners of our great country to determine who has the fastest network. After all the testing and analysis, it turns out the Canadian king of speed is none other than Rogers.

You can read their full article here.

As you intuitively realize, not all networks perform the same in all markets but overall the editors of PCMag determined that Rogers provided the fastest overall connectivity on the 2600Mhz LTE band. Big Red was followed closely by Bell and Telus.

Telus was found to have the fastest HSPA+ network but who really cares about HSPA+ anymore?

"we used field-test software from Sensorly, loaded onto Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphones running Android 4.2.2." - PCMAG "How we tested"

I do wish they had used a device with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor which has an LTE category 4 baseband. This newer chipset typically results in better network performance. I don't think it changes the ranking but each provider may have had slightly faster top speeds.

PCMag National Canadian Wireless Speed Test Results

As a Quebecer, I was particularly interested in how well Rogers performed in my own backyard and PCMag had an interesting comment:

"Rogers performed especially well in Quebec, where its LTE network was extremely reliable."

Videotron, a Quebec only triple-play mobile service provier, was found to offer great value and respectable network performance:

"While it's using HSPA+ rather than LTE, it has really admirable speeds and coverage, making it an excellent value for money"

In Southern Ontario, Rogers performed slightly better than Bell but the race was very close.

New 2013 Nexus 7 with LTE available in Canada

September 18, 2013technologyEdward Kiledjian

New 2013 Google Nexus 7 with LTE tablet on Google Play for $349 CAD

As much as I love the experience of IOS devices, I believe the best deal on a 7" tablet right now is the 2013 Nexus 7 (link).

It is light, powerful and has an incredibly beautiful retina-like screen. Really puts the iPad mini to shame. Many have been eagerly waiting for the LTE variant of the new device and it is finally available in Canada.

$349 buys you a brand new 7" tablet with:

32GB of storage
2GB of RAM
7-inch, 1920x1200 display (Full HD)
Fraunhofer designed sound system
comes with Android 4.3
LTE: 700/850/1700/1800/1900/2100 MHz
HSPA+: 850/900/1900/2100/AWS (1700/2100) MHz

Since we are talking about the LTE version, I want to mention that the device has pentaband HSPA+ support which means it will work with Wind Mobile, Mobility and videotron, plus LTE support for the big 3 Bell, Rogers, Telus (and their sub-brands Koodoo, Fido, SOLO, etc)

iPhone 5c and 5s compatible with Videotron, Wind Mobile & Mobilicity

September 18, 2013technologyEdward Kiledjian

We are just days away from the shipping of the iPhone 5c and the sale of the iPhone 5s. When buying a smartphone [Apple or Android], the biggest cost during your contract are the data costs. Canadians looking to use one of our alternative carriers (Wind Mobile, Mobilicity or Videotron) should rejoice with the knowledge that all new iPhones will be compatible with the AWS bands used by these carriers (T-Mobile in the US). This also means that the phone will work perfectly when roaming in the US with a Roam Mobility SIM card.

Sure some iPhone 5's were compatible but not all and figuring out which one was compatible was a complicated act of mental gymnastics based on serial number look-up.

Any iPhone 5c or 5s you pickup (unlocked) will work with these alternative cheaper carriers.

ROGERS' US ROAMING VERSUS ROAM MOBILITY

ROAM MOBILITY OFFERS COMPETITIVE US ROAMING FOR CANADIANS