Bell boosts 5G speeds across parts of Ontario

Bell Canada has switched on 3800MHz mid-band spectrum across parts of southern Ontario, promising faster 5G data speeds and more network capacity. The upgrade covers areas including Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton and Hamilton, and builds on earlier tests in Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo. Bell bought the spectrum at a 2023 auction for CAD2.8 billion (about $2 billion).

The operator says customers with compatible Apple, Samsung and Google phones could see data speeds rise by about 65% compared with its previous 5G performance, with peak download rates of up to 3.6Gb/s. Bell’s EVP and CTO Mark McDonald said the deployment supports its wider 5G-Advanced plans and is expected to improve services such as cloud gaming, entertainment, enterprise AI tools and real-time augmented reality collaboration.