MONTREAL — The ENCQOR 5G testbed initiative Thursday announced it has signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with six telecom service providers in Canada — Bell, Cogeco, Ecotel (Ambra Solutions), Rogers, Telus and Vidéotron.
ENCQOR stands for Evolution of Networked Services through a Corridor in Quebec and Ontario for Research and Innovation. The Canada-Quebec-Ontario partnership has a mandate to bring together small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and academia to contribute to the advancement of research, innovation and demonstration of applications through a pre-commercial 5G testbed. ENCQOR 5G has five Digital Innovation Hubs, located in both Quebec and Ontario, providing a 5G platform where SMEs can develop and test new solutions.
According to the news release, thanks to its collaboration agreements with the six Canadian telcos, ENCQOR 5G and the service providers will work closely with SMEs developing innovative solutions and services using the ENCQOR 5G test platform.
“This announcement will enable the respective SME ecosystems to better prepare for 5G and take full advantage of the power and opportunities offered by this new technology. For ENCQOR 5G, collaborating with 6 players in the telecommunications sector constitutes a major milestone in the development of Canada’s digital economy, which is competitive on a global scale,” said Pierre Boucher, general manager of ENCQOR 5G, in the news release.
The ENCQOR 5G initiative is funded by the governments of Canada, Quebec and Ontario as well as leading industry players Ericsson, Ciena, Thales, CGI and IBM. ENCQOR 5G is coordinated by Innovation ENCQOR, and delivered in Ontario by OCE and in Quebec by Innovation ENCQOR and Prompt.
