in existence which merged with cingular ; now at & t mobility see bellsouth mobility . bell mobility inc. formerly called bell cellular 1986 1993 type subsidiary industry mobile network operator founded toronto ontario 1986 headquarters mississauga ontario key people blaik kirby president stephen howe cto products blackberry apple iphone android smartphones mobile internet devices two way messaging picture and video messaging mms video calling mobile tv parent bce inc. website www.bell.ca mobility a bell mobility ford explorer fleet vehicle . bell mobility headquarters in mississauga ontario creekbank campus bell mobility is a canadian cdma lte and hspa based wireless provider and the division of bce inc. which sells wireless services across canada . bell mobility and its affiliates combined have 8.236 million subscribers as of the end of q1 2016 making it canada s third largest wireless carrier . 1 bell owned virgin mobile canada and solo mobile as well as loblaws prepaid pc telecom operate as mvnos on the bell mobility network . some of bell canada s regional subsidiaries continue to operate their own wireless networks separate from but generally allowing for roaming with bell mobility ; these are northwestel nmi mobility and latitude wireless t l bec t l bec mobilit and northerntel northerntel mobility . in july 2006 bell mobility assumed responsibility for the former aliant wireless operations in atlantic canada as part of a larger restructuring of both bell and aliant and continued to do business there as aliant mobility until re branding as bell in april 2008 . 2 bell mobility is a member of the british columbia technology industry association . contents 1 networks 1.1 amps discontinued 1.2 cdma 1.3 hspa 1.4 lte 1.5 radio frequency summary 2 products 2.1 rugged devices 2.2 legacy products 3 services 3.1 history 3.2 current services 3.3 mobile internet 3.4 mobile tv and radio 3.5 push to talk 3.6 discontinued services 4 advertising 5 criticism 5.1 feature restrictions 5.2 data plans 5.3 text messaging 6 retail presence 7 see also 8 references 9 external links networks edit although both are different and independent from one another both the cdma and hspa networks use the 850 and 1900 mhz frequencies . bell s lte network uses band 4 advanced wireless services aws 1700 2100 mhz and band 2 personal communications service pcs 1900 mhz in most coverage areas and band 7 2600 mhz in a few areas . amps discontinued edit due to the age and security problems of this technology bell mobility discontinued its advanced mobile phone system amps analog mobile network in february 2008 . cdma edit bell mobility maintains a legacy cdma network . it enabled the evolution data optimized ev do technology on this network in 2005 and completed shutting down its ev do capability on july 1 2015 . 3 on august 15 2016 it was reported that bell mobility plans on shutting its cdma network 4 as follows january 31 2017 shut down of cdma network in british columbia alberta and quebec s gasp region telus bell s cdma partner in these areas is shutting down its cdma network at that time june 30 2017 shut down of cdma network in saskatchewan sasktel bell s cdma partner in this area is shutting down its cdma network at that time april 2017 shut down of cdma network in ontario quebec maritime provinces and fort nelson area of british columbia hspa edit in october 2009 telus mobility and bell announced plans to deploy hspa technology by 2010 as part of an effort to eventually upgrade to lte technology . the network using largely shared infrastructure launched on november 4 2009 . according to bell the single channel hspa network is available to 96 % of the canadian population . it provides download speeds of up to 21 mbit s with typical speeds ranging between 3 and 8 mbit s. the dual channel network on the other hand began in 2010 and is available to 70 % of the canadian population . it can reach download speeds of up to 42 mbit s but with typical speeds of 7 to 14 mbit s. 5 bell s hspa network coverage is in portions of all canadian provinces and territories but it is not possible to drive in canada between the pacific coast to the atlantic coast without going through areas without any cellular coverage as there are gaps in cellular coverage in british columbia and ontario . 6 lte edit bell mobility lte sim card . bell launched lte by using the 1700 mhz band 4 frequency in toronto and surrounding areas on september 14 2011 . 7 since then bell has expanded lte into most areas of canada where it has hspa coverage and launched lte on to the 2600 mhz band 7 frequency for additional bandwidth in march 2012 8 and on to the 700 mhz spectrum paired bands lte band 12 and band 13 including band 17 subset and unpaired band 29 in 2014 . 9 bell will use either band 13 or band 12 depending on provinces . 10 bell expects nationwide rollout of lte to be completed by 2015 . 11 as of august 2016 lte coverage reaches most of canada s population but there are gaps in coverage in smaller communities and between communities where bell s hspa network is available but its lte network is not available . steinbach mb population 13 500 is the largest canadian community without lte coverage from bell . bell intended of expanding lte coverage to 98 % of the canadian population by the end of 2015 but later revised this to by the end of 2016 . 12 13 as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2015 bell had coverage to 96 % of the canadian population . 12 13 as of february 2016 bell mobility has launched voice over lte volte in part in canada on one smartphone model . 14 radio frequency summary edit frequencies used on the bell mobility network frequency range band number protocol class status note s 850 mhz clr 5 umts hsdpa hspa dc hspa 3g 4g active fallback for calls and hspa data . 1 900 mhz pcs 2 umts hsdpa hspa dc hspa 3g 4g active fallback for calls and hspa data . 850 mhz clr 5 lte 4g active being deployed used for extra bandwidth within cities and rural coverage . only seen in british columbia . 15 re farmed from decommissioning cdma network . 1 900 mhz pcs 2 lte lte advanced 4g active being deployed secondary lte band being deployed and used for lte lte advanced coverage . re farmed from decommissioning cdma network . 700 mhz a b c c2 e 12 17 13 29 lte lte advanced 4g active being deployed mainly used in rural areas rural coverage . also used to provide tri band lte advanced coverage within city limits . 1 700 2 100 mhz aws 4 lte lte advanced 4g active main lte band used across the country . also being used to provide lte advanced coverage . 2 600 mhz imt e 7 lte lte advanced 4g active being deployed found in select markets but being developed slowly in new markets alongside to provide lte advanced coverage . products edit feature phones and smartphones supporting hspa and lte are offered by bell and are generally the same as offered by the other two large carriers in canada rogers wireless and telus mobility . rugged devices edit despite the growing popularity of multimedia messaging service mms and instant messaging on smartphones bell seems to be preparing for the launch of a new push to talk technology along with new hspa devices . the sonim xp5520 bolt is scheduled to be launched on april 10 2012 while bell plans to release the samsung galaxy rugby on the following day . 16 legacy products edit due to the age of the technology as deployed by bell cdma smartphones are no longer sold by bell mobility . services edit history edit the first cell phone conversation in canada took place on the bell network between jean drapeau and art eggleton the mayors of montreal and toronto on july 1 1985 . 17 the first cell phone customer in canada was victor surerus a travelling funeral director out of peterborough ontario who purchased a 2 700 cad telephone set and took out a service subscription with bell canada in july 1985 . 17 current services edit blackberry internet service telephony sms and mms bell offers a service to check account balances minutes and megabytes of mobile data used add features and answers to frequently asked questions . the service is called tcare short for text message care . it is used by sending a blank message to the phone number tcare 82273 . mobile internet edit bell offers four internet only plans and several smartphone plans and add ons for customers wishing to access mobile broadband . various fixed data allowances are offered by bell 10 20 100 300 and 500 mb as well as 1 to 6 gb 10 gb and 15 gb . the 20 mb add on is a daily allowance while the others are monthly allowances . flexible data plans are also available . this is used for bell mobility s internet only plans and some smartphone plans which begins with a certain usage limit at a lower tier . if this is exceeded the customer moves to the next higher tier with a slightly larger allowance . the flexible turbo hub flex plan from bell differs in that customers have to pay a premium if they want to increase the maximum theoretical speeds from 7.2 mbit s to 21 mbit s. no additional usage is included when paying for the speed upgrade . bell s policy is to only allow the sale of turbo hub service with its own turbo hub devices . monthly tier monthly bandwidth limits turbo hub speeds over usage multiplier download upload first 2 gb ericsson w35 discontinued netgear mbr1210 4g netgear mvbr1210c 4g voice netgear mbr1516 lte 7.2 mbit s some 21 mbit s 5.76 mbit s 7 times of extra gb second 5 gb 4 times of extra gb third 10 gb 4 times of extra gb fourth 15 gb 10 times of extra gb bell s wireless internet plan starts at the initial 2 gb tier . if this is exceeded the tier automatically goes up to 5 gb then up to 10 gb then up to 15 gb as the final tier . there are additional charges if one does goes above the 15 gb tier . some grandfathered customers have an unlimited mobile internet plan or add on . these are usually limited to older and slower cdma devices such as the now discontinued palm pre and normally can not be used for tethering unless the device is a mobile broadband modem . bell s discontinued brand solo mobile new activations ceased 17 may 2012 and its active virgin mobile canada brand also have grandfathered accounts with unlimited mobile broadband . mobile tv and radio edit main article bell mobile tv bell mobile tv was launched for bell smartphones on october 18 2010 . 18 push to talk edit on april 24 2012 bell launched an improved push to talk ptt service . it is powered by bell s newer hspa network in contrast to the operator s older ptt officially titled 10 4 service which used the cdma network . hspa service is available at one flat rate for unlimited bell to bell ptt service from and to canada . the monthly service can either be purchased alone or added to any plan at a lower cost . ptt roaming in the united states or other countries is billed per megabyte . one megabyte offers approximately ten minutes of ptt talk time . consequently bell offers approximately 100 to 400 ptt roaming minutes