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| Formerly | Cantel Cantel AT&T Rogers Cantel AT&T Rogers AT&T Wireless |
|---|---|
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Mobile network operator |
| Founded | February 4, 1983[1] |
| Founder | Ted Rogers David Margolese Marc Belzberg Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Key people | Dirk Woessner, president |
| Services | NR, LTE, UMTS (including HSPA), GSM (including SMS, GPRS, and EDGE) |
| Revenue |  $15.1 billion CAD (2018)[2] |
| $585 million CAD (2018)[3] | |
Number of employees | 24,500 (2017) |
| Parent | Rogers Communications |
| Website | rogers |
Rogers Wireless Inc. is a Canadian wireless telephone company headquartered in Toronto, providing service nationally throughout Canada. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rogers Communications.[4] The company had revenues of just under $15.1 billion in 2018.[2] Rogers Wireless is the largest wireless carrier in Canada, with 13.7 million subscribers as of Q2 2023.[5]
The company was originally started by David Margolese as an expansion of his pager firm, Canadian Telecom, formed in 1978. With the 1983 introduction of AMPS, the first North American standard for cell phones, Margolese started plans to expand the company into this new market. This required large amounts of capital. A group of private investors consisting of Margolese, Ted Rogers, Marc Belzberg and Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien formed the newly renamed Cantel in 1984 and opening for service in July 1985.
Rogers purchased a controlling interest in the company in 1986, and bought out all of the shares of the other members by 1990. Starting in 1984, he also purchased an increasing share of CNCP Telecommunications, who operated a number of microwave relay networks suitable for carrying long distance calls. AT&T purchased a share of the new company, which also allowed Cantel to avoid using Bell Canada lines for access into the U.S. where possible. In 2003, the company was renamed Rogers Wireless, and in 2004 Rogers bought out AT&T's remaining shares. The same year, Rogers purchased Microcell Solutions, today known as Fido, Canada's first user of GSM systems as opposed to the more widespread (in North America) CDMA. The company then expanded GSM service throughout their network.
Rogers Wireless has remained Canada's leading wireless provider throughout its history. This was aided in its early Cantel years by the slow uptake of cellular service by Bell Canada and the limited capital of smaller players like BC Tel and Shaw Communications. The use of GSM proved to be a major boon when the iPhone was released in 2007 and only ran on GSM. This handed the company exclusive access to this product until 2009 when Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility agreed to share towers and switch/upgrade to UMTS/HSPA in time to capture the lucrative international market as part of the 2010 Winter Olympics.[6] Today, Rogers retains its preeminent position with widespread service, continued acquisitions, and the use of fighter brands like Fido and Chatr.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
cvanhasseltwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b "Rogers Communications Reports Fourth Quarter 2018 Results" (PDF). www.rogers.com.
- ^ "Rogers added 112,000 net postpaid wireless subscribers in Q4 2018". www.mobilesyrup.com. 24 January 2019.
- ^ “Rogers Communications Inc. Company Profile”. Yahoo! Finance. Accessed May 21, 2013.
- ^ "Rogers Investors Relations" (PDF). Rogers Investor Relations.
- ^ "Bell and Telus bringing forward HSPA launch to November". commsupdate.com. 6 October 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2022.