WATERLOO – Rogers Communications and the University of Waterloo announced Friday a three-year, multi-million-dollar partnership agreement to advance 5G research in the Toronto-Waterloo tech corridor.
Together the school and the wireless carrier will create the first 5G smart campus in central Canada. This new partnership is part of company’s $20 million investment in Canadian 5G research and development already announced with the University of British Columbia, Ryerson University and Communitech, added the company announcement.
“5G is at our doorstep and these investments are critical to developing the ideas and solutions that will fuel industries and drive Canada’s digital economy for decades to come,” said Rogers president and CEO, and U of Waterloo alum (electrical engineering), Joe Natale in the press release.
The partnership will focus on engineering, network design, applied mathematics and artificial intelligence – and the university and Rogers will also build a 5G network on campus to test network infrastructure, frequencies and applications in a real world environment.
Establishing the first wave of research projects and construction of the smart campus will begin in early 2020. As part of the partnership, Rogers is a founding partner of the Gateway for Enterprises to Discover Innovation at the University of Waterloo (GEDI), a central place for companies to access the full potential of Waterloo’s research, talent and entrepreneurial ecosystem, reads the release.
“Combining the experience of Rogers with the research and entrepreneurial talent at the University of Waterloo will empower faculty and students to make discoveries and build new companies that will help us further contribute to the economies of our region and the country as a whole,” added Feridun Hamdullahpur, president and vice-chancellor, University of Waterloo.
Rogers also announced it is the first wireless provider to work with ENCQOR 5G, the $400-million partnership led by the governments of Canada, Ontario and Quebec which has established the first pre-commercial 5G telecommunications corridor in Canada. It brings together a network of companies, organizations and researchers who want to innovate by using the full potential of 5G. Rogers will support small and medium-sized enterprises as they work toward unlocking the technological promise of 5G through ENCQOR.
These announcements come on the heels of Rogers launching North America’s first 5G-powered campus at the University of British Columbia in order to facilitate academic research and testing; the opening of Rogers Create, a 5G Lab at Waterloo’s Communitech focused on accelerating and launching 5G applications.
Rogers has also partnered with its 5G vendor Ericsson to boost and densify its fibre-powered network with 5G-ready technology and as it prepares for commercial deployment of 5G in 2020, Rogers continues to test 5G in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver, and upgrade its national 4.5G network with the latest 5G-ready technology, reads the press release.
