None of the Big Three Canadian telcos will charge extra for 5G access.
Rogers, the last telco to insist on charging a premium for its 5G access, recanted the plan this week. Rogers now says “5G access is included with Rogers Infinite plans at no extra charge” on its 5G FAQ page.
Previously, Bell and Rogers planned to charge a $10 to $15 premium for their 5G access. When their 5G services launched–Rogers in January and Bell in June–both companies announced that access would be free until early 2021.
Telus was the last of the Big Three telcos to launch its 5G network, enabling the service on June 18. In parallel with the launch, Telus said from the get-go that 5G access will be free for its customers.
Just two weeks after Bell launched its 5G network, the company reversed the decision to charge extra for 5G, likely due to competitive pressure from Telus.
Rogers and Telus 5G access is only available for customers subscribed to unlimited data plans. Bell has enabled 5G to any of its post-paid plan customers.
Rogers also touts how it doesn’t charge for 5G on its 5G landing page.
All current 5G networks in Canada are based on sub-6GHz frequencies between 600MHz to 2.5GHz. While the signals already improve speeds for users with 5G phones, the real benefit will come once service is deployed on the mid-band frequencies, namely the 3.5GHz spectrum. The auction for the 3.5GHz spectrum is expected to begin on June 15, 2021.