Rogers Communications announced Tuesday it is collaborating with CableLabs to develop industry-leading network technology for Canadians.
The collaboration will see the establishment of “CableLabs North” — located in Calgary at Rogers Barlow campus (formerly Shaw’s Barlow campus) — which will bring together global industry partners and Rogers technologists to collaborate on network technology solutions, explains a press release. “Together, the teams will develop new innovative applications and provide customers seamless connections in and out of the home or workplace,” the release says.
“CableLabs North will develop technology to deliver 5G using cable network infrastructure to bring customers even faster speeds and more capacity. Other areas of focus for Rogers include its rollout of 10G, the future of cable internet that will bring multi-gigabit speeds up to 10 times faster than today with enhanced reliability and ultra-low latency,” the release adds.
“As the largest operator of coast-to-coast wireless and wireline networks in Canada, we are proud to invest in research and bring the next frontier of networks to Canadians,” Ron McKenzie, chief technology and information officer at Rogers, said in the release. “CableLabs North will be on the forefront of innovation, bringing together the best and brightest minds from around the world to collaborate on the future of network technology and deliver a more seamless experience to Canadians.”
“CableLabs is excited to work closely with Rogers to make ‘CableLabs North’ a reality,” said Mark Bridges, chief technology officer at CableLabs. “The value of this deep collaboration cannot be overstated as it will offer an opportunity to engage with innovators at Rogers on initiatives that will transform our industry.”
For more than 30 years, Colorado-based non-profit CableLabs has been an innovation lab for “future-forward R&D”, bringing together cable and broadband industry leaders, including Comcast, Charter, Cox, J:Com and Vodafone, to share knowledge and develop scalable network standards and technology.
“The organization has developed technology and over 800 patents that help deliver faster speeds and more reliability on cable networks to meet consumers’ evolving expectations,” the Rogers press release says.
As part of Rogers’s merger with Shaw, which marked its one-year anniversary last week, Rogers pledged to create THINKLab, a National Centre of Technology and Engineering Excellence to be established on Shaw’s Barlow campus in Calgary. In April 2022, a year prior to the merger being finalized, Rogers announced the first members of an advisory council that would oversee the proposed THINKLab tech centre.
When asked Tuesday whether CableLabs North will operate in parallel to THINKLab or whether it replaces the proposed THINKLab centre, a Rogers spokesperson responded via email to say “The Advisory Council met last week and together with today’s announcement, we’re strengthening our technology expertise in Western Canada.”
