The plan includes Gigabit LTE, including 4x4 MIMO, four-carrier aggregation and 256 QAM. Rogers will also boost and densify its network with thousands of new small cells and macro sites across Canada while continuing to trial 5G services in key cities across Canada.

At the Rogers Centre in Toronto, the two companies demonstrated multiple live 5G examples as a part of Rogers’ 5G testing programme. Those examples included having participants wear virtual reality (VR) glasses to toss a baseball back and forth, virtual shopping and controlled robots with real-time responsiveness.

According to the Ericsson 5G business potential report, industry digitalisation investments will generate an estimated $619 billion revenue opportunity for telecom operators by 2026.