Bell expands Canada's 5G network to 23 more cities and towns

Bell Mobility has announced the expansion of its 5G network in Canada, to 23 new markets across Québec, Ontario and Manitoba.

"As we continue to expand into new cities and towns, more Canadians will benefit from access to the superfast speeds, low latency and next-generation applications enabled by Canada's most-awarded 5G network, supported by the latest 5G devices and newest unlimited data plans," said Claire Gillies, President of Bell Mobility. "Leading the way in 5G is a key part of Bell's goal to advance how Canadians connect with each other and the world."

Bell 5G's reach has expanded in Manitoba (St. Andrews and Stonewall), Ontario (Barrie, Burlington, Clarington, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, Kitchener, London, McNab/Braeside, Moravian, Pickering and Waterloo) and Québec (Ascot Corner, Champlain, Magog, Rivière-du-Loup, Saint-Catherine-de Hatley, Saint-Luc-de-Vincennes, Saint-Maurice, Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivières). Offering peak theoretical mobile data access speeds up to 1.7 Gbps, Bell 5G is now available to approximately 35% of the Canadian population and on track to cover up to 70% by the end of the year.

"The City of Hamilton is proud to welcome Bell's 5G network and to be a part of this investment to help ensure our long-term growth and prosperity," said Fred Eisenberger, Mayor of Hamilton, Ontario. "We look forward to the innovation and convenience that this will drive for both our businesses and residents."

The increased speed and lower latency offered by Bell 5G will enable millions of new business and consumer applications, like the recently launched TSN 5G View / Vision 5G RDS that offers sports fans unprecedented control of their viewing experience. Opening up possibilities in virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning, IoT, connected vehicles and smart homes and cities, 5G's speed and efficiency in delivering data is also expected to have a significant positive environmental impact.

"The Bell Network team is pleased to bring 5G to more Canadians to drive innovation, including to our developer partners, technology start-ups and established innovators in the Toronto-Waterloo Innovation Corridor that make up a part of the more than $500 million in R&D spending that Bell invests in Canada each year," said Stephen Howe, Bell's Chief Technology Officer.

Bell 5G innovation and investment

Earlier this year, Bell announced the biggest capital expenditure plan in its history, with at least $1 billion in additional capital investment in new networks over the next 2 years to support the national economic and employment recovery from COVID-19. This investment is in addition to the more than $4 billion that Bell typically invests annually in next generation wireless and fibre network infrastructure and service development. Bell also leads the communications industry in Canadian research and development investment, including academic research partnerships with Western University and Université de Sherbrooke to create 5G applications across health, agriculture, transportation, manufacturing and in the AR/VR and smart cities spaces.

Bell's 5G network connects with Bell high-speed fibre – Canada's largest fibre-optic network at more than 240,000 total kilometres. Bell was first in Canada to trial mobile 5G technology and is working with a range of leading global and domestic 5G partners, including Ericsson and Nokia, to accelerate Canada's 5G innovation ecosystem.

Bell 5G supports the latest 5G-ready devices, including the iPhone 12 lineup, Samsung Galaxy S21 5G series, LG Velvet 5G, the new TCL 20 Pro and many others, with new Unlimited Share plans, enabling customers to share data across all their devices with family members, with no overage fees. Bell was also the first mobile carrier in Canada to offer the Netgear Nighthawk M5 5G mobile hotspot offering up to 1.2 Gbps peak download speeds.