Canada’s leading wireless carrier is spreading the LTE magic in more areas. Rogers Communication today announced that it is expanding coverage of Long Term Evolution, the faster kind of 4G being developed in North America, in the Greater Toronto Area and communities that surround Vancouver, British Columbia.

Rogers had already delivered LTE to Toronto, but not in all of the surrounding areas like Brampton, Markham, Mississauga, Richmond Hill, and Vaughan. Residents of those areas will be able to enjoy the faster speeds at home rather than just when they go closer to the city. The same goes for residents of the Vancouver metro area. LTE has just been turned on in Delta, Langley, Maple Ridge, North Vancouver, Port Coquitlam, Surrey, and West Vancouver.

An LTE-capable device will be required to see a difference in speed, so users will need to own or upgrade to a Samsung Galaxy S II LTE or HTC Raider LTE phone. The HTC Jetstream LTE tablet is also compatible. Prices for each device varies, but more information is available at RogersLTE.com

The current areas supported by Rogers LTE are Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver. Canadians can sign-up at IWantMyLTE.ca to be notified when LTE service goes live in their city. A coverage map available at RogersLTE shows the areas that already have LTE, will get LTE soon, and which areas have HSPA+ for now.

Rogers Wireless has news for anyone in Canada who has been envious of the 3D hype slowly building in Android mobile devices: jealousy can put be to rest this summer.

The Rogers blog has just announced that it will offer both of the 3D Android phones of which you are most familiar. This summer, the LG Optimus 3D and the HTC EVO 3D will be Rogers exclusives in Canada. An exact release date or price has not been revealed, but pre-orders for both devices begin next week. Rogers is also enticing consumers by entering everyone who pre-orders either phone into a special contest. Pre-order the Optimus 3D and you will be entered into a drawing for a 55″ LG Cinema 3D HDTV; EVO 3D buyers could win a $2,500 MasterCard gift card.

While anyone in the U.S. interested in a 3D device has to choose between Sprint (HTC EVO 3D) and AT&T (Optimus 3D as the Thrill 4G), Canadians itching to embrace mobile 3D will have to turn to Rogers. You can get the full contest details on Redboard, but here’s a little information on HTC EVO 3D specs and Optimus 3D specs to help decide which, if either, is right for you.

EVO 3D (click here for more info)
- HTC Sense UI with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
- 4.3-inch touchscreen with qHD display
- 1.2 GHz dual-core processor (Qualcomm)
- Dual 5 MP cameras for 3D recording, 1.3 MP front-facing camera for voice chat
- 4 GB internal memory / 1GB RAM

Optimus 3D (click here for more info)
- LG custom UI with Android 2.2
- 4.3-inch touchscreen with WVGA display
- 1 GHz dual-core processor (TI OMPA 4)
- Dual 5 megapixel cameras for 3D recording
- 8 GB of internal memory

Mobile Syrup heard from a “reliable Rogers tipster” that the phone will lunch in June. They even got a slide showing the price next to the LG Eve, which highlights the comical fact that you can get a more powerful, 2.1-running Acer Liquid E for only $30 more than 1.5-running, older Eve.

Just for a refresher for anyone thinking of getting a Liquid, here are the specs that we’ve covered previously:

The Liquid e has Android 2.1, a Snapdragon 768 MHz processor, 512 ROM, and 256 MB RAM. The phone has five home screen panels, Quick Contacts to go between the phone’s contacts and social networks, Live wallpapers, a new keyboard layout, and a 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreen. It also has a 5MP camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, up to 32GB microSD slot, FM radio, and a custom UI built by Acer.

[via MobileSyrup]

[via Rogers]

Thanks krepler for proving the update and link in a previous comment.

[via Android in Canada]

Feature wise, the handset offers a 3.2-inch (320 x 480) touchscreen display, an 800MHz processor, 3.2-megapixel camera, 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and ships with a 2GB microSD card.

As far as the operating system, the Galaxy Spica will ship with OS 1.5 but will be upgradeable to 2.1 in the future.

Price wise you can expect to pay $79.99 with a 3-year agreement, $349.99 with a 2-year agreement, $399.99 with a 1-year agreement or $449.99 contract free.

[via Rogers]

Bell’s announcement likely tips that Rogers will be the exclusive carrier of the Motorola Quench (CLIQ XT), a touchscreen-only MOTOBLUR phone. Motorola Canada said that it would bring three phones to “all major carriers” in Canada, and TELUS and Bell have already staked their claim to two of those phones. That leaves Rogers as the only remaining major carrier and the Quench as the only remaining MOTOBLUR phone to be paired together. Expect a word from Rogers confirming that they will carry the phone, but the carrier will likely not announce price or availability.

[AndroidInCanada]

Of course, the pricing information is not coming by way of an official press release, but instead from a series of images of an internal system at Rogers. In short, those interested can expect to pay $79.99 on a 3-year contract or $449.99 contract free.

Now it looks like we just need to narrow down that March time frame to an exact launch date. Oh, and get the official word from Rogers.

[via MobileSyrup]

Either way though, the Samsung Galaxy Spica has recently been revealed in images sporting the Rogers brand on the back. Unfortunately the images that have been circulating are of a dummy in-store unit and not an actual handset. But still, its a Rogers branded Galaxy Spica.

Bottom line, according to the details that MobileSyrup is reporting, it looks like the Galaxy Spica will be available sometime “within 2-3 weeks.”

And just to offer a recap, the Samsung Galaxy Spica features a 3.2-inch (320 x 480) touchscreen display, an 800MHz processor, Wi-Fi, GPS, microSD card slot, 3.2 megapixel camera with video recording, 3.5mm headphone jack, microUSB and speakerphone.

As far as the version of Android, most would expect 1.5, however according to Mobile Syrup it “might ship with OS 2.0.” We can hope, we can hope.

[via MobileSyrup]