Canada is years behind other jurisdictions when it comes to government attention on the development of smart cities, Bill Hutchison, president of the i-Canada Alliance, an organization focused on the development of intelligent communities, told a Parliamentary committee Thursday. “At the federal level, our government is becoming interested in smart cities five years after the U.K. … and four years after the U.S. national government,” he said during his appearance at the...
OTTAWA — In order to roll out the infrastructure and technology necessary to make connected cars available across Canada, government funding will be needed, and it could be modeled after the Connected Canadians program that’s currently in place to target rural broadband, a Senate committee heard Tuesday. “We see there’s a need today ... where the provincial and federal government in some cases supplement the business case for the private operators to enable the rollout of the technologies,” said Martin Proulx, director general of engineering, planning and...
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. announced Friday the creation of the NSERC-Huawei Industrial Research Chair in Future Wireless Technologies at Polytechnique Montréal....
Despite a projected 1,000-per-cent increase in 5G connections between 2020 and 2021, less than half a per cent of all devices and connections will have 5G capability in that same time period, according to a new Cisco Systems Inc....
There are still many unknowns as wireless carriers move to 5G networks in the coming years, including questions about how much companies will charge for service, though prices have the potential to...
Canada is in a good position to be an “early mover” of Internet of Things (IoT) adoption, but it’s still falling behind in key areas required for forward momentum, according to a new...
BCE Inc. has signed on to test a platform developed by AT&T Inc. that would allow it to carry more, and better manage, traffic on its network. The software — called ECOMP or Enhanced Control, Orchestration, Management and Policy — was built to power AT&T's new network, Bell said in a Thursday release. Bell joins France-based Orange SA as the first telecom companies to test the platform. It works by “virtualizing the network...
OTTAWA — Canadians need to see the value of, and get behind, 5G technologies before politicians can be persuaded to take action on helping launch the technology on a broad scale, a...
Ontario is launching a pilot project to test self-driving cars, the provincial government said Monday. It noted in a press release that the province was the first in Canada to launch a regulatory framework allowing...
OTTAWA — The quality of Canada’s wireless and wireline networks is a “significant strength,” but the country can’t rest on its laurels while others catch up, Innovation...
Ericsson AB and Rogers Communications Inc. are participating in a project to help monitor water quality in Ottawa, the companies said in a press release Tuesday. The pilot project...
CRTC commissioner Christopher MacDonald said radio stations must build on their strengths in order to deal with increasing competition in a speech to the Ontario Association of Broadcasters (OAB)...
TORONTO — For there to be wider adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) devices for the connected home, simpler value propositions must be presented to consumers, a conference heard Monday....
GATINEAU, Que. — While Rogers Communications Inc. said it generally does not support differential pricing practices (DPP), it suggested Wednesday that the regulator should stay flexible in its approach given...
In five years, the worldwide number of connected home appliance shipments will reach 202 million, compared to 17 million this year, according to Juniper Research Ltd. The study found that...
OTTAWA — Canada should have a federal “cyber czar” focused on the issue of cyber security, Peter Sloly, the former deputy chief of the Toronto Police Service and an executive director at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., told senators Wednesday. The cyber czar would “overarch ministries and other divisions of government in order to co-ordinate and develop a level of cyber capacity and update the strategy on a continual basis,” he said. Sloly, who works in the cyber section of Deloitte Canada’s risk advisory services, was speaking at a meeting...
TORONTO — Most Canadian businesses are not prepared for the next wave of digital innovation and there needs to be a collaborative effort to help them adapt, a Cisco Systems...
TORONTO — A national strategy on Internet of Things (IoT) technology, involving businesses, academia and the government, should be developed in Canada to help the country compete, a conference heard Wednesday. Currently,...
Telus Corp. said it would sell an Internet of Things (IoT) service that monitors the temperature of food in transit, on a monthly billing basis. The company said in a press release Tuesday that it’s offering...
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner said Thursday that 62 per cent of the health devices it examined as part of a global sweep didn’t “adequately explain how personal...
The need for upload speed is growing among Canadian consumers and businesses, though it’s too early to tell whether there’s real demand for symmetrical Internet plans that some companies have begun offering, according to analysts. During the annual BMO Capital Markets’ media and telecom investor’s conference, Telus Corp. said that it has separated itself from the pack by offering symmetrical Internet, or plans where upload speeds are identical to download speeds. “Upload speed is actually critically becoming more and more important whether you want to...
BCE Inc. and Nokia Corp. have completed a trial of 5G technology, which they say is the first such initiative in Canada. “Conducted at Bell's Wireless Innovation Centre in Mississauga, the trial...
Traffic on the Internet of Things (IoT) is forecast to skyrocket over the coming years, and though vehicles will be part of that network, there are still a number of challenges, including...
Facebook Inc. and AT&T Inc. have waded into the CRTC’s review of differential pricing practices, arguing that the commission should allow carriers to offer zero-rated services...
The number of anglophones subscribing to TV service continues to fall, according to a new report by Media Technology Monitor (MTM), a project of CBC/Radio-Canada. In the spring of 2016, 73 per cent subscribed to TV...
Data released Tuesday by Cisco Systems Inc. shows Canadian Internet protocol (IP) traffic will double, and overall Internet traffic will nearly triple by 2020, aided by an increase in new...
TORONTO — With customers’ usage of data increasing exponentially, and carriers limited in how much they can charge for that data, telecoms will have to turn to 5G networks, Ericsson...
The majority of the 28 billion devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) by 2021 won’t be mobile phones, according to the latest edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report. IoT devices are...
OTTAWA — As the number of devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) increases, so, too, do the regulatory challenges to keep users safe, according to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s chief...
Canadian businesses are divided when it comes to the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT), according to a new study commissioned by Telus Corp. The study, released Thursday, found that 52 per cent of Canadian businesses are “considering, planning, piloting or deploying” an IoT service, while 48 per cent “indicated they have no plans at all to adopt the technology,” a press release said. Of those who said they are not considering using IoT tools, 64 per cent “feel there is no business need,” according to the results. The most-common business IoT...
Households with connected devices are increasing, according to a pair of studies studying smart home adoption. The number of broadband-connected Canadian homes with smart home devices more than doubled, rising to 11 per cent, or...
Health devices will take the spotlight when Canada’s privacy commissioner participates in this week’s global examination of the Internet of Things (IoT). The Global Privacy Enforcement Network’s 2016 privacy...
Rogers Communications Inc.’s introduction of Internet of Things (IoT) management as a service removes the need for its business enterprise customers to troubleshoot their various applications...
OTTAWA — If Canada is to reap the benefits of the global digital shift, it needs to stack its skilled labour deck or risk falling behind, said a new report by the Information and Communications...
Cisco Systems Inc. is making a bid to purchase Jasper Technologies Inc., a cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) service provider that a number of Canadian telecoms have partnered with for their own IoT platforms. Cisco said in a Wednesday press release that its plan is to pay $1.4 billion for the California-based company that helps businesses connect devices over cellular networks. Telus Corp., BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. are among Jasper's Canadian clients, each offering IoT "control centres" to monitor and control devices. "Jasper represents the largest...
Cisco Systems Inc. on Tuesday announced the opening of its new innovation centre in Toronto. It said in a press release that it's one of nine Cisco Innovation Centres around the world, and it will focus on accelerating and...
Worldwide spending on the Internet of Things will rise from $698.6 billion US this year to $1.3 trillion US in 2019, according to International Data Corp. IDC said in a press release Thursday that the “regions that will...
Worldwide wearable shipments rose 197.6 per cent with 21 million units shipped in the third quarter this year, up from 7.1 million units in the same period a year earlier, according to a new report released Thursday...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced Wednesday it has signed an agreement with the Centre de services partagés du Quebec (CSPQ) to continue its wireless services for up to 10 years with the...
The amount of data flowing through cellular networks, both in North America and around the world, will increase almost 10 times over the next six years as growth in smartphone adoption continues and video consumption becomes more...
BCE Inc. will cover about 90 per cent of its wireline footprint with fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) in a little less or a little more than a decade, though the issue of whether smaller Internet service providers will get mandated access...
Cisco Systems Inc. announced Tuesday it is partnering with Carleton University and providing a $1.8-million grant over the next nine years to establish a research chair in sensor technology for the...
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. said Friday that it has partnered with Telus Corp. to create a lab to help develop 5G technology. It said in a press release that the project, called the 5G Living Lab, will design, test and deploy...
Global cloud traffic will be four times higher than what it was in 2014 by 2019, Cisco Systems Inc. said this week, rising to 8.6 zettabytes from 2.1 zettabytes. Cisco said in a press release Wednesday that its fifth annual global cloud index shows the growth rate of cloud data will outpace overall data centre traffic, which it said would triple to 10.4 ZB from 3.4 ZB. It said the growth of cloud traffic is being driven by demand for cloud services by businesses and demand from mobiles devices, and that the growth of machine-to-machine connections "has the potential to drive more cloud...
Global smartwatch shipments were up 510 per cent in this year's third quarter from a year earlier, with 6.1 million units shipped compared to one million during the same period the previous year,...
Telus Corp. on Thursday said customers of its Internet of Things commercial vehicle-tracking service can now access a data-based insurance product helps them save costs and encourage safe driving. Telus said in a press release...
In full election platforms released last week, the NDP is promising to implement changes to Canadian privacy law and look into Internet of Things (IoT) privacy, the Conservatives are pledging funding for rural broadband and...
The Canadian wearable market is expected to get shipments of 1.4 million units by the end of 2015, up almost 55 per cent from 905,000 last year, according to International Data Corp. The...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced Monday that its KiSS 92.5 in Toronto is the first Canadian music radio station to launch an app for Apple Inc.’s Apple Watch. It said in a press release that the app will allow users to instantly listen to a live stream of the station, along with scrolling through new playlists to see what is trending on the station. “Tech-savvy listeners want the option to tune in on-the-go from their device,” Julie Adam, senior vice-president of radio at Rogers, said in the release. “By making the KiSS 92.5 app available on Apple Watch, we are...
BlackBerry Ltd. announced Wednesday it has completed its acquisition of AtHoc Inc., a software provider for secure networked crisis communication. It said in the press release that AtHoc will operate as a division of BlackBerry...
International Data Corp. said Tuesday that 73 per cent of enterprises it polled in a recent survey are using Internet of Things (IoT) technology or plan to do so over the next year. “IoT...
A new survey from research company 451 Research LLC. indicates high consumer satisfaction ratings with Apple Inc.’s Apple Watch, noting 54 per cent of consumers studied were very satisfied. 451...
International Data Corp. said Monday that wearable shipments will reach 76.1 million units this year, up 163.6 per cent from the 28.9 million units shipped in 2014. It said in a press release that total shipments of basic and...
Telus Corp. announced Wednesday it is expanding its Internet of Things (IoT) platform globally to nearly every country around the world. It said in a press release that the new platform, called Telus Global IoT Connectivity...
U.S. wireless carrier AT&T said Tuesday that it has partnered with ZTE Corp.’s U.S. division to offer the first plug-in vehicle WiFi hotspot device. The device, called ZTE Mobley, can...
Wearables and tracking tags are being used more frequently in a wider variety of workplaces to collect statistics on employee productivity, health and satisfaction — tracking the performance of professional athletes, helping...
The FCC announced Thursday it is adopting new rules to accommodate unlicensed use of devices in the 600 MHz spectrum bandwidth and TV broadcast bands, while protecting interruptions or interference it may cause with licensed TV...
New data from Juniper Research Ltd. predicts the number of Internet of Things (IoT)-connected devices in the industrial and public services sectors will triple by 2020. The research company said in a press release Tuesday the number of connected devices will rise over 285 per cent, growing to 38.5 billion in 2020, up from 13.4 billion in 2015. It said the retail, agriculture, smart buildings and smart grid applications sectors “will form the majority of the device base. This is due in no small part to a much stronger business case for these types of applications.”...
The Internet has run out of new IP addresses based on the most commonly-used format, and one Canadian expert says service providers in the country are being too slow in making the switch to the newer protocol. Jacques Latour,...
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. ranks first among fitness-band makers for customer-satisfaction among U.S. residents, while Fitbit Inc. is second, according to a survey by J.D. Power and Associates. It said in a press release...
Cisco Systems Inc. announced Tuesday it is planning to acquire OpenDNS, a security systems company with offices in San Francisco and Vancouver. Cisco said in a press release that it will buy the company for $635 million US...
Over the past year, there has been a key change in the Internet of Things (IoT) market, as customers have become more aware of the technology and what it can do for them, according to officials from...
OTTAWA — Those in the wearables industry envision the day when their products are taking less direction from humans and doing more thinking for themselves — in other words, incorporating more artificial intelligence (AI). “We’re moving from this time where we manually created the Internet," Tom Emrich, organizer for the organization known as We Are Wearables, said during an event held in Ottawa Tuesday. "What we’re doing now is waking things up in this age of awareness. "We’re now calling these things that we have smart things, but...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. said Wednesday it has launched a machine-to-machine (M2M) management centre, which is an online portal for its business customers to control and monitor devices linked to an M2M...
The United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the intergovernmental body that is responsible for establishing worldwide standards of communication systems, announced Friday it has defined a roadmap for 5G mobile network development. It said in a press release that it has...
As wearable technology moves further into the mainstream, thoughts are turning toward how individual privacy can be protected with such devices that track and transmit information as personal as health data and real-time location....
The number of cellular Internet of Things (IoT) and machine-to-machine (M2M) connections globally will nearly quadruple between 2014 and 2019, technology research group 451 Research LLC said Monday....
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner will release a report on privacy issues related to the Internet of Things (IoT), according to its annual report released Tuesday. The office will release an introductory paper and...
The number of third-party applications for smart wearable devices is expected to surge from 2,500 last year to 349,000 by 2019, International Data Corp. said Tuesday. The research company said in a news release that most of these...
Google Inc. will launch a new Android-based platform that will allow companies to build connected devices, it said in a blog post Thursday. Google said the platform, called Project Brillo, will include a communications protocol,...
The president of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.'s Canadian unit is calling for policy-makers, businesses and academics in Canada to come together and help prepare the country for the coming of 5G networking technology. At a...
Eastlink on Tuesday announced it is offering a new and improved security-and-automation service for homes. Among other things, the new service called Winston can detect when the home occupant is approaching the residence and prepare for their arrival by doing things things such as setting the temperature to preferred levels and turning on lights, Eastlink said in a press release. The service also allows the occupant to provide unique codes to different people, such as kids or babysitters, and set parameters for when certain people can enter the home. Eastlink's website lists other...
IT-services company CGI Group Inc. said Wednesday it has teamed up with Baseline Telematics to use real-time vehicle metrics to help insurance company set their rates. CGI said in a news release it...
Google Inc. said Friday that the testing of its self-driving cars will move from its own track to public roads in its home base of Mountain View, Calif. Google said in a blog post that cars on the public roads will not be able to...
The main Internet of Things (IoT) market will generate $6.5 billion in revenue in Canada in 2018, representing average annual growth of 18 per cent in comparison to the $2.88 billion the market was worth in 2013, International...
Telus Corp. announced Tuesday that it will spend $2.1 billion in Ontario by the end of 2018, the latest in a series of funding announcements from the company. The money will go toward new infrastructure and facilities, including...
Vancouver-based Recon Instruments announced Thursday the release of its new smart goggles for outdoor sports enthusiasts called Recon Jet. It said in a press release that the product is equipped with GPS, a camera, a display that's visible just below a user's right eye and can be paired with smartphones for certain functions. Among the operations Recon Jet performs, the company said, is providing real-time data on things such as speed, distance and heart rate, keeping users connected with call display and text messages from a paired smartphone, video and picture taking, and interacting with and online platform or apps for Apple Inc.'s iOS and Google Inc.'s Android devices for storing fitness data. "Jet’s feature set is built for running, cycling and outdoor activities — both serious and recreational —...
Telus Corp. said Wednesday it will spend $4 billion on infrastructure and facilities in its home province of British Columbia over the next four years, including $1 billion this year. The company said in a press release that the...
Telus Corp. said Monday it will spend $4.2 billion on infrastructure and facilities in Alberta between now and the end of 2018, including $1 billion in the current year. The company said in a press release that, when combined...
International Business Machines (IBM) Corp. said Tuesday it will invest $3 billion US over the next four years to establish an Internet of Things (IoT) unit. It said in a press release it will use its cloud-based platform to help business clients better integrate data from IoT devices and other...
A new report from Ericsson AG suggests Apple Inc.’s upcoming Apple Watch could address a market that's far larger than what current wearable sales would indicate. In a worldwide study of...
The GSMA, an international wireless industry group, announced Monday that two machine-to-machine communications (M2M) standards groups had adopted its embedded SIM specification for devices connected to the Internet of Things...
Telus Corp. announced Tuesday it is partnering with Internet of Things (IoT) platform provider Jasper Inc. for its own IoT platform, the Telus Control Centre. The new platform “simplifies the deployment and management of...
BCE Inc. will be among an international coalition of six telecommunications service providers demonstrating what it called a "revolutionary" new integrated platform for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications at next...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Tuesday it has brought its Smart Home Monitoring service to Vancouver and other parts of British Columbia's Lower Mainland. Rogers said in a press release there are multiple packages available,...
On Monday the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a report on the Internet of Things that calls for manufacturers to implement strong self-regulation regarding security and privacy concerns and suggests regulators are taking a hard look at the companies promising a connected future. The regulator called for businesses to take “concrete steps” to enhance security and privacy for users of devices such as connected home thermostats or wearable health monitors. Companies need to build security into devices from the design stage, the FTC said, as well as correctly train employees...
Automated vehicles are about to become the most disruptive near-term technology in the average person's life, the Conference Board of Canada said in report released Wednesday. The research group said the impact of driverless...
Google Inc.'s director of self-driving cars says such technology will be in operation in two to five years, but Canada will have to wait longer due to its climate, according to a report by the Financial Post. An article...
After a decade of consumers being the trendsetters in the adoption of emerging technology, the enterprise sector will take on a bigger role in 2015 as leaders in the use of cutting-edge IT products,...
Redline Communications Group Inc., a Markham, Ont.-based provider of wireless network technology for the oil-and-gas industry, announced on Thursday a $2.6-million contract with an unnamed oil producer in the Middle East. Redline...
BlackBerry Inc. said Wednesday from the CES technology trade show in Las Vegas that it launched an Internet of Things (IoT) platform, and that it will make its BBM service available on smartwatches. The IoT platform, which the company announced in May, will initially target the car and asset-tracking industries and “will also be extended into the smart energy sector and the health-care field,” BlackBerry said in a press release. The company also said that its BBM messaging service will be made available on “a wide range” of smartwatches running Google Inc.’s...
The coming year is poised bring about new developments and changes in the worlds of technology and telecommunications. While a number these twists and turns will seemingly come out of nowhere, at least one predictable trend is...
Greater consumer interest in wearable technology, growth in over-the-top (OTT) television subscriptions and greater prominence of the Internet of Things (IoT) are among the top trends in technology expected for next year in...
Telus Corp. said Wednesday it has launched Canada's "first Internet of Things marketplace" with an online offering of 38 different applications, and more to come, for business operations ranging from transportation...
Ericsson AB and International Business Machines (IBM) Corp. announced Monday that they are working together researching antennas for the future era of 5G wireless communications. The companies said in a press release that they...
Wavefront, a Vancouver-based centre that provides financial and consulting support for the wireless industry, was the recipient of funding pledges on Friday worth a combined $13.5 million from the...
BlackBerry Ltd. on Thursday announced the availability of its latest system for enterprise management of mobile devices. The new system is called BES12, which BlackBerry said in a press release "is the foundation for...
The Internet of Things has been compared to the Industrial Revolution in terms of its eventual impact, though the general public is not yet fully aware of it nor convinced of its value, according to a recent study. That’s...
Industry Minister James Moore announced Friday that the government is easing labelling requirements for electronic devices by allowing information to be displayed electronically on the devices' screens rather than in a...
Telus Corp. and technology maker Mojio Inc. announced on Tuesday they will team up to provide a connected-car service in Canada before the end of this year. In a joint press release, the companies said the service will use Telus' national wireless network to connect to the Internet and employ a cellular device from Vancouver-based Mojio that connects to vehicle's onboard diagnostic port, which is on most cars manufactured since 1996. When the service launches some time in the coming months, the companies said it will send vehicle diagnostics to user's smartphone, automate trip...