Rogers and UBC turn on 5G research campus

Rogers Communications Inc. and the University of British Columbia said they have powered the first fully-functional 5G “smart campus” to test applications for the next-generation network. The campus includes 5G towers and an edge computing data centre for university researchers to test those technologies. It comes after a multi-million dollar investment in September 2018 toward the initiative. “With 5G at our doorstep, we’re focused on bringing together Canada’s brightest minds to research, incubate and commercialize applications that will transform the way we live and work,” Jorge Fernandes, chief technology officer at Rogers, said in a Tuesday press release. The announcement comes as the campus will explore new research projects on the network, including technology related to earthquake and tsunami detection, digital mining to make that industry safer and more sustainable with autonomous trucks, and a mobile platform that allows for the best modes of transportation to be easily identified. In June, Rogers signed a five-year, $10-million partnership with Ryerson University in Toronto to train students in cybersecurity through a program called the Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst. A month later, the company announced a partnership with Communitech in Waterloo to open a new 5G innovation lab that will “advance made-in-Canada 5G technology and commercialize 5G use cases,” a press release said. The cable company has been lobbying the City of Montreal over the summer to get involved in that municipality’s 5G pilot project, which was announced in June. The city is preparing to start-up a living lab to test 5G technology this summer where a number of antennas will be installed in the downtown area. All these developments come on the heels of a number of developments related to the advancement of the incoming 5G networks, expected to begin deploying next year. In July, a public-private partnership between the federal, Ontario and Quebec governments, in partnership with five companies including Ericsson AB and IBM Corp. announced that a wireless network used to allow companies to test 5G technology is now operational. The ENCQOR project was announced last year and received $400 million over five years. Another test-bed non-profit, called the Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN), which has the big three Canadian telecoms as members, also seeks to provide the technology to help small- and medium-sized businesses test these kinds of new technologies before they hit the market. The organization received $63 million in funding from the Ontario government last year.

Rogers and UBC turn on 5G research campus

Brief | November 5, 2019

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Rogers and UBC turn on 5G research campus

Brief | November 5, 2019

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