Canadian wireless provider Telus released a statement today discussing its plans for 4G LTE service, announcing that it intends to launch the first of its LTE in major markets next year, with rural service further down the road (no pun intended), dependent on its success in snagging the rights to use 700MHz bands.

The first of its LTE service will be offered over the 1700MHz and 2100MHz blocks, which is fine for when access points can be relatively close together, but propagation issues at those relatively high frequencies make them a less than ideal solution for hooking up a low-density, spread-out population with 4G service.

While those initial LTE cells will go live earlier in 2012, it won’t be until later in the year when the Canadian government auctions off usage rights to that sought-after 700MHz band. Frequencies in this space are those currently used by Verizon in the US for its LTE network, freed up after the transition from NTSC to ATSC television broadcasts lowered the channel ceiling.

Telus won’t be alone as it attempts to transition to LTE, with Rogers, Bell and WIND taking steps of their own.

Source: Telus

Via: MobileSyrup