Rogers Wireless First Canadian Operator to Launch HSDPA Mobile Broadband Service


BELLEVUE, WA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- November 2, 2006 --3G Americas, a wireless trade organization representing the GSM family of technologies, applauds Rogers Wireless on their technology leadership role in offering mobile broadband service based on UMTS/HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) -- the natural evolution for GSM, the world's most popular wireless technology. Today, Rogers announced that their HSDPA service is commercially available in nine major markets, with plans to expand to the top Canadian markets during 2007. Rogers is the first operator in Canada to offer HSDPA service and the second in all the Americas.

"It's exciting to watch the spread of mobile broadband connectivity across North America with commercial services now offered by both Rogers and Cingular," remarked Chris Pearson, President of 3G Americas. "The news of Rogers' HSDPA deployment will be welcomed throughout the Americas, in addition to the recent announcement by T-Mobile USA to deploy UMTS with HSDPA capability in 2007."

UMTS/HSDPA is the leading 3G wireless technology based on the number of customers and the number of deployments worldwide. To date, there are 72 commercial HSDPA networks, with another 55 planned or in deployment. UMTS services are already offered by 142 operators in 61 countries, with an additional 149 networks in deployment, planned, licensed or in trial.

UMTS/HSDPA technology benefits from the scope and scale of more than two billion GSM customers worldwide, and especially from the global ecosystem of suppliers manufacturing to these open standards. HSDPA delivers high speed mobile broadband connectivity with:

--  Throughput rates averaging 550-800 Kbps
--  Reduced latency to 70-100 milliseconds
--  Simultaneous voice and data service using the same spectrum allocation
--  Improved multi-media services for rapid downloads of video clips,
    music tracks, large high-resolution files and games
    
"Operators in Latin America, such as Ola in Colombia, are trialing UMTS while considering the unique market dynamics of their regions that will influence their decisions to commercially launch services," commented Erasmo Rojas, Director of Latin America and the Caribbean for 3G Americas, "Ancel in Uruguay has announced their 2007 plans to commercially deploy UMTS and later in the same year upgrade their network to HSDPA."

Analysts predict that globally, there will be 100 million UMTS/HSDPA customers by the end of 2006. It is expected that almost all of the 291 operators committed to deploying UMTS will eventually enhance their offered services with HSDPA.

About 3G Americas: Unifying the Americas Through Wireless Technology

The mission of 3G Americas is to promote and facilitate the seamless deployment throughout the Americas of GSM and its evolution to 3G and beyond. The organization fully supports the Third Generation technology migration strategy to EDGE and UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA adopted by many operators in the Americas, which is expected to account for up to 85 percent of next-generation customers worldwide. 3G Americas is headquartered in Bellevue, WA, with an office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Dallas, TX. For more information, visit: www.3gamericas.org.

About Rogers Wireless

Rogers Wireless Inc. is Canada's largest wireless voice and data communications services provider with offices in Canadian cities across the country, more than 6.2 million customers, and two powerful brands: Rogers Wireless and Fido. Rogers Wireless, which operates Canada's largest and clearest integrated wireless voice and data network, providing advanced voice and wireless data solutions to customers from coast to coast, is Canada's only carrier operating on the GSM/GPRS technology platform, the world standard for wireless communications technology and the only technology that enables roaming around the world in over 180 countries. The company is a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc. a diversified Canadian communications and media company. For further information, please visit www.rogers.com

Contact Information: Contact: Vicki Livingston +1 262-242-3458 Email Contact