Rogers Communications has doubled the amount of spectrum its Prince George customers can access on its wireless network.
The city was among six in Western Canada where the company activated the additional spectrum this week.
The move amounts to "opening more lanes on our wireless superhighway," according to Raj Doshi, Rogers executive vice president of wireless services,
"Those new lanes will mean faster speeds as we all stream more and more mobile video and connect with friends and family," he said in a statement.
The added spectrum was purchased from Shaw Communications a month ago and had sat unused since 2008.
According to the Financial Post, the Toronto-based carrier transferred all but two of the 18 licences for AWS-1, a type of spectrum, it bought from Shaw for
$350 million to upstart Wind Mobile Corp. for $1 apiece.
The two it kept cover B.C. and Alberta, and Prince George became among the first to get the benefit because of the ease of transfer.
"The AWS-1 band is where Shaw had their spectrum that we recently purchased," Rogers spokesman Aaron Lazarus said in an e-mail.
"Because it is right next to our existing AWS-1 band of spectrum, it means we're doubling the lanes of our wireless superhighway in that AWS band."
Rogers' network uses LTE, or "Long Term Evolution," which is the "global gold standard in wireless network technology, according to the company.
It says LTE is "far superior to previous technologies such as 3G and 4G HSPA+," and "delivers a faster, richer and smoother wireless internet experience than ever before."
