Providers ready for online demand - Vancouver Sun

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Providers ready for online demand - Vancouver Sun Apr 11th 2012, 09:21 As the Canucks kick off their Stanley Cup run against the Los Angeles Kings tonight a spike in demand for wireless broadband services is expected from smartphone users looking to get in the game on their personal devices. Telus reports it's gearing up for this year's Stanley Cup playoffs, when almost twice as many people as last year will be watching live streamed playoff games, trading photos and video and commenting on social media via mobile networks. "The number of smartphones has essentially doubled in the last year and that really drives demand for high-bandwidth applications, particularly video," said Telus spokesman Shawn Hall. "We are investing heavily to make sure we have the capacity." By the end of 2011, 53 per cent of Telus wireless customers were on smartphones, up from 33 per cent at the end of 2010. Close to three out of four of people - 74 per cent - buying new mobile devices in the last quarter of 2011 got smartphones, compared to 46 per cent who opted for smartphones during the same period a year earlier. Hall said Telus has been boosting its wireless capacity in downtown Vancouver over the past few years, and the company has increased its investment in the city since last year's Stanley Cup run. Improvements to the net-work include the rollout of Telus' new, faster 4G LTE network as well as an increased capacity for its earlier generation HSPA+ network. Despite the growth in smartphone usage, Hall said Telus doesn't expect its customers will have trouble streaming video or getting through on their phones, even during peak game times. Rogers, which provides the wireless network inside the Rogers Arena where the Canucks play, has added close to $440,000 in upgrades to that network during this hockey season, says Sara Holland, spokeswoman for Rogers Communications. That brings the total network infrastructure investment in the arena to close to $1.7 million over the past three years. Rogers has also opened the Rogers Connected Zone in the arena on Level 300, between sections 311 and 312, where a kiosk includes a live Twitter feed and an interactive display. Traffic is expected to be heavy as fans share photos, updates and videos using their smartphones and tablets. gshaw@vancouversun.com vancouversun.com/gillianshaw © Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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