Videotron to open up 5G trial project to proposals

MONTREAL — Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron gave an update on the progress of a partnership focused on testing 5G-related technology Wednesday, and announced the project will start accepting submissions from businesses, researchers and the public in the fall. “There are a number of start-ups who have already deployed and are testing with us,” Videotron president and CEO Manon Brouillette said at a press conference, in French. “In the fall we will begin welcoming projects from the business community who can use the infrastructure we’ve deployed and test applications.” Videotron announced last fall that it would create an “open-air smart living lab” together with Ericsson AB, Montreal’s École de technologie supérieure and the non-profit Quartier de l’innovation. Serge Legris, vice-president of technologies and projects at Videotron, said in an interview that the first few months of the project were dedicated to putting the infrastructure in place. “We’ve been busy… and everything is happening fast,” he said. The lab is now testing technology including picocells — small LTE base stations —and a self-organizing WiFi network that “anticipates and manages the wireless connections of one or more users or things without human intervention in order to provide a seamless experience,” Videotron said in a press release. The project also involves a connected student residence that has been outfitted with a “smart network” of WiFi, picocells, and long-range (LoRa) antennas. Videotron said in the press release those technologies will, along with various sensors, “create a ‘smart home’ experience for students, in which the entire environment is managed using analysis of data from the various everyday objects present in the building.” Other technology being tested includes LiFi, a wireless technology that transmits data using light. “It’s interesting because it’s always a fine line that we have to manage between more technology and the feeling of being submersed by technology,” Legris said. “Us, as technicians, we get very excited with technology, but the lab is also about finding this acceptance of technology and creating value for people.” Legris gave the example of using proximity-sensing tech that is also being tested in the lab to monitor the safety of senior citizens. “One of my directors has installed his mothers’ place… and right now, he can monitor in real-time movement within the apartment, so he can detect if there’s been a variation,” he said. “There’s a usefulness. It could be perceived as intrusive, but there’s real applications. So this is what we want to explore with the lab.” Legris said that combining “this intelligence in the cloud, associated with the current technology, it brings the current technology to another level, and that acts as a foundation for 5G.” He added that opening the lab to start-ups will help the company “be at the forefront of 5G, but our goal goes beyond that. We really want to create an overall community of start-ups that will focus on this.” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca

Videotron to open up 5G trial project to proposals

News | June 21, 2017

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Videotron to open up 5G trial project to proposals

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