Tony Staffieri, president and CEO of Rogers Communications attends an event in Vancouver on Monday, October 31, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
TORONTO – Rogers Communications Inc. president and CEO Tony Staffieri says his company will not attempt to prevent any of its rivals from offering cellphone service to their customers on Toronto’s subway system once Rogers takes control of the wireless infrastructure.
Speaking Wednesday at a lunch hosted by Canadian Club Toronto, Staffieri pledged the network “will work for everybody.”
Bell and Telus had expressed concern over whether their customers would be able to use wireless service on the transit system after Rogers announced it had acquired B-A-I Communications’ Canadian arm, which has held the rights to the Toronto Transit Commission’s wireless network since 2012.
Staffieri says talks with BAI began around a year ago but became more timely recently in light of a wave of violence on the TTC that prompted calls for the three major telecom companies to sign on to its service.
As BAI’s existing network covers around one-quarter of the subway’s underground tunnels, Staffieri says it will take around two years for Rogers to build a 5G network for the entire subway system, with construction only possible for two to three hours per night when trains do not run.
He says the system will come online in “bits and pieces” over the next two years with 9-1-1 calling first, followed by text messages, voice calling and video streaming.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 12, 2023.
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