Written by MARK NIELSEN
Citizen staff
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Thursday, 27 November 2008 |
Rogers Wireless vice president for B.C. Gord Nelson shows some of the products that can now work between Prince George and Prince Rupert. (submitted photo)
Telus and Bell already provides a similar service along the 720-kilometre stretch of Highway 16 west, but Rogers' version is superior, Gord Nelson, the company's B.C. vice president said, because it's to the global system for mobile communication (GSM) standard.
"Rogers is the only GSM carrier in the country," he said during a media event at the Civic Centre. "There are significant benefits in that 90 percent of phones worldwide are GSM phones and basically 82 per cent of the population of the globe is using a GSM-type device."
Advantages also include seamless roaming in more than 200 countries with no need to chance a phone number or device.Sony Ericsson makes only GSM handsets and Nokia, the world's largest handset manufacturer, recently announced it will make GSM handsets only.
"What this enables us to have is leading-edge handsets, a broader portfolio of products," Nelson said.
Rogers spent $10 million to install 17 transmitter sites along Highway 16 east and Fort St. James is included in the service. Rogers also spent a further $5 million to fill in coverage between Prince George and Kamloops.
"Literally, if you went outside the city limits of Prince George and you turned on your Rogers phone," Nelson said of the service prior to the upgrade.
Gaps remain for a short stretch between Smithers and Hazelton and for longer lengths between Hazelton and Terrace and Terrace and Prince Rupert. And there remains no service along Highway 16 east as far as Jasper and along Highway 97 north to Chetwynd, with the exception of Mackenzie.
"We're going to continue to look at our network and where it makes sense, based on our customers' needs and requirements, we'll build accordingly," Nelson said.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 27 November 2008 )
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