VANCOUVER – Rogers and the University of British Columbia (UBC) are teaming up to build a real-world 5G hub on the UBC campus in Vancouver that will be “a testbed and blueprint for 5G innovation in Canada.”
Thursday’s announcement said that the three year, multi-million dollar partnership will see 5G-ready network equipment and infrastructure deployed at UBC starting early next year, designed to study 5G applications such as monitoring cars and traffic to develop smarter and safer cities. Other research interests include autonomous vehicles, machine learning, artificial intelligence and network slicing technology for use in robotics, farming and medical applications.
Rogers said that with over 60,000 students and faculty, as well as fibre, utilities, and infrastructure, UBC will act as a city within a city to prove out 5G applications. The hub will also act as a blueprint for how Rogers will eventually bring 5G to Canadian urban centres.
“5G represents a massive technological transformation that will connect everything in our world from people and machines, to homes and cities. The global race to unlock its potential is underway,” said Rogers president and CEO Joe Natale, in the announcement. “Our partnership with UBC will ensure we bring our country and Canadians the very best 5G has to offer.”
“UBC has significant expertise in leveraging its own infrastructure to create a unique ‘living lab’ environment that fosters creative problem-solving in a real-world setting,” added UBC president and vice-chancellor professor Santa Ono. “This partnership with Rogers opens exciting research and learning opportunities for our faculty and students in wireless technology. It is a great example of how universities and industry can work together to develop new knowledge and provide our students with the skills that are vital in building the digital economy.”
