Bell has announced that it is deploying 5G+ spectrum at 3800 MHz in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), bringing the company's fastest mobile speeds to people in parts of southern Ontario.
With the upgrade, you'll get improved reliability, lower latency, and faster speeds. Bell claims the 3800 MHz band offers up to 65 percent faster speeds, theoretical download speeds of up to 3.64 Gbps, better support for HD video playback, and improved “real-time gaming and collaboration on the go.” However, it's worth noting that Bell still limits video streaming quality in its mobile plans.
While what's included in the GTA is always a debate among people living in outlying areas like Oshawa and Hamilton (I'm adamantly against including those cities in the GTA), Bell listed which areas would benefit from improved 5G+ speeds. And luckily for my friends at the Seam and our editor-in-chief John Lamont in Hamilton, Bell will be distributing the 3800 MHz spectrum to these far-flung regions.
Cities included in Bell's 3800 MHz spectrum deployment include:
- Toronto
- Mississauga
- Hamilton
- Brampton
- Vaughn
- Markham
- Oakville
- Burlington
- Oshawa
- Whitby
- Milton
- Ajax
- Pickering
- Aurora
- Halton Hills
- Grimsby
- Lincoln
Doesn't Bell already have 5G+?
If you're confused about the difference between the 5G+ rollout and previous announcements, it's all on a broad spectrum.
A little history when Bell launched 5G network in Canada in 2020 it operated in the expanded wireless spectrum (AWS) using the 1700 MHz spectrum, which has since retired. Following this, in 2022, Bell launched “5G+” spectrum at 3500 MHz, which can reach theoretical speeds of 3 GB/s. And last year Bell has deployed approximately 3,800 MHz of spectrum in Toronto and Kitchener, Ontario.. The company's 3800 MHz spectrum is now more widely available and is capable of delivering faster speeds of up to 3.64 Gbps.
While these speeds seem fast compared to mmWave used by US telecom companies, we are still in the past. mmWave 5G spectrum has a theoretical speed of 10 Gbps and an average speed of 5 Gbps, which is still superior to our 3800 MHz spectrum. However, mmWave has a much shorter range, making it less useful outside dense urban areas.
That being said, until Rogers and Telus deploy their share of the 3800 MHz spectrum, Bell customers will theoretically have the fastest 5G speeds in the country.
Update December 4, 2025, 9:15 a.m. ET: Added some additional details about the history of Bell 5G.
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