Regional Canadian operator Videotron began a 5G march, launching service in the country’s second-largest city, Montreal and outlining plans to expand coverage to other urban centres across the province of Quebec.

CEO Jean-Francois Pruneau in a statement hailed the rollout as a “big day” for the operator, adding it was “very enthusiastic about embarking on the path to this promising and exciting future”.

The operator stated Samsung provided network equipment, noting the companies would continue to work together on expansion efforts over the “next few years”.

In a separate release, Samsung said it supplied 5G RAN equipment compatible with the 600MHz, 700MHz, 2.6GHz and AWS spectrum bands.

Videotron launched its mobile service in 2010 and was the fifth largest operator in Canada at 30 September with 1.45 million subscribers.

Canada’s top three operators launched 5G services earlier this year: Rogers Communication in March, and Bell Canada and Telus in June.