Who offers the best wireless speed in Saskatchewan? Depends on where you are, PC Magazine finds
Rogers is a surprise winner when it comes to the fastest wireless speeds in most parts of Saskatchewan, according to PC Magazine's sixth edition of its look at the fastest mobile speed across Canada — but your mileage may vary depending on where in the province you are.
The American technology magazine's analysis looked at 36 cities in all 10 provinces — including tests in Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Swift Current — and took into account downloads, uploads, latency, reliability and consistency.
PCMag analysts stopped at up to 20 locations in each city, as well as collected data on the drives between cities, to build results and a speed score for carriers in each city.
In Saskatoon, Rogers was the leader in 15 tests, "with download speeds head and shoulders above its three competitors" — SaskTel, Telus and Bell — PCMag said in its results, published online this week.
The average download speed for Rogers in Saskatoon was 118 megabits per second. Telus was a distant second at 75 Mbps, followed by Bell at 65 Mbps and SaskTel at 60 Mbps.
"Rogers' advantage was especially stark in some of the densest parts of town," the report said, highlighting Broadway and 12th Street E. in the city's Nutana neighbourhood, where Rogers averaged 148 Mbps download speed while none of its competitors could break 50 Mbps.
Rogers, Telus tie in Regina; Telus tops in Swift Current
In Regina, PCMag found that Bell actually offered a superior maximum download speed, but after weighing in other factors, it said Rogers and Telus tied for fastest overall service.
It crowned Telus the speed champ in Swift Current and Rogers in Moose Jaw.
Rogers had an overall speed score of 99 out of 100 in Saskatoon followed by Telus at 88, and SaskTel and Bell tied at 86.
In Regina, Rogers had the best speed score of 96 out of 100. Bell clocked in at 94 while SaskTel and Telus tied at 92.
Swift Current and Moose Jaw had noticeably slower speeds than Regina and Saskatoon, PCMag found.
The average download speeds in Swift Current were in the 50-60 Mbps range, while Moose Jaw's average speed was between 60-71 Mbps.
Sask. rates relatively low
While SaskTel may not have topped any of the speed tests, PCMag said Saskatchewan residents pay relatively low monthly rates compared to other provinces largely due to the Crown corporation's presence in the market.
PCMag said wireless prices are still higher in Canada compared to the United States, but said Canadian carriers offer speeds much higher than those in the U.S.
In its national testing, PCMag found Telus came in No. 1, followed by Bell and Rogers. Kingston, Ont., saw the fastest speeds, with an average download speed across all three major networks of 292 Mbps.
