Rogers Wireless Inc. is a Canadian mobile network operator headquartered in Toronto, providing service nationally throughout Canada.

[5] The company was originally started by David Margolese as an expansion of his pager firm, Canadian Telecom, formed in 1978.

With the 1983 introduction of AMPS, the first North American standard for cell phones, Margolese started plans to expand the company into this new market.

A group of private investors consisting of Margolese, Ted Rogers, Marc Belzberg and Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien formed the newly renamed Cantel in 1984 and opening for service in July 1985.

Starting in 1984, he also purchased an increasing share of CNCP Telecommunications, who operated a number of microwave relay networks suitable for carrying long distance calls.

The same year, Rogers purchased Microcell Solutions, today known as Fido, Canada's first user of GSM systems as opposed to the more widespread (in North America) CDMA.

This was aided in its early Cantel years by the slow uptake of cellular service by Bell Canada and the limited capital of smaller players like BC Tel and Shaw Communications.

[6] Today, Rogers retains its preeminent position with widespread service, continued acquisitions, and the use of fighter brands like Fido and Chatr.

[1] In 1978, future Sirius XM Radio founder David Margolese dropped out of university and founded the paging company Canadian Telecom.

[7] At the time, there were no such licenses or commercial cellular services in existence, as the wireless technology was still in the laboratory and experimental.

[9] In 1986, Ted Rogers purchased a controlling stake in Cantel, which was at the time Canada's only national supplier of cellular telephone service.

[40] In July 2011, Rogers was the first Canadian telecom operator to launch a commercial long-term evolution (LTE) network.

[44] On March 31, 2015, Rogers Wireless launched voice over LTE (VoLTE),[45] the first carrier in Canada to offer this service.

[50] Today, Rogers's 5G network is live in more than 160 communities across Canada, including Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, and Montreal.

As a result, Shoppers stores added both prepaid and postpaid products and services for Rogers and its two other brands, Fido and Chatr.

In 2005, Rogers lost a court case against an Osgoode Hall Law School university professor, Susan Drummond, over a $12,000 charge for overseas calls that was placed on her bill after the phone was stolen, for which the company insisted she pay.

[68][69][70] It also turned up information that Rogers had been allowing phones that they were alerted had potentially fraudulent call patterns to continue to remain functional despite the warning.

[74] An $18 billion class action lawsuit against: Bell, Rogers, and Telus, originally filed in a Saskatchewan court in 2004 regarding these hidden fees, is still pending.

[64] In 2013, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled that Chatr's advertising of fewer dropped calls, in connection with its 2010 launch, was fair and accurate.