Initial 5G trials will take place in Toronto and Ottawa, Rogers says
Canadian telecom operator Rogers Communications announced a multi-year initiative through which it aims to deploy 5G technology in partnership with Swedish vendor Ericsson.
Rogers’ network plan includes the continued rollout of its gigabit LTE network with technology and equipment that is based on the latest global 3GPP standards, including 4×4 multiple-input-multiple-output, four-carrier aggregation and 256 QAM. The Canadian operator also plans to boost and densify its network with small cells and macro sites across the country.
Through the partnership with Ericsson, Rogers will trial 5G technology in Toronto and Ottawa, in addition to select cities over the next year.
“We are at the advent of the fifth generation of wireless networks. Similar to how 4G powered the proliferation of the smartphone and on-demand economy, 5G will make the mass communication of IoT a reality, changing how we live and work,” said Jorge Fernandes, chief technology officer at Rogers Communications. “We’re setting the table to lead on 5G with the right infrastructure, spectrum, partners and investments, so we’re ready when the ecosystem is ready,” the executive added.
At Rogers Center, a number of companies recently demonstrated multiple live 5G examples as a part of Roger’s 5G testing program. Participants wore virtual reality (VR) glasses to toss a baseball back and forth, virtually shopped in a retail store, and controlled robots with real-time responsiveness. Rogers also demonstrated quad-band Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) on gigabit LTE to show how LAA provides high bandwidth simultaneously across several devices.
Rogers’ partnership with Ericsson on 5G testing is one among many Canadian projects around 5G. In March this year, the governments of Canada, Québec and Ontario announced a $400 million initiative to develop a 5G corridor. Ericsson, Ciena, IBM, Thales and CGI are supporting the initiative, which joins previous public and private sector 5G-related projects in Canada.
The Canadian government said that key use cases for the next-generation network technology include smart cities, healthcare, education, connected and autonomous vehicles, entertainment and media and the internet of things.
Earlier this year, Huawei and Telus launched a 5G wireless-to-the-home (WttH) trial service using a specially-designed 5G customer premise equipment (CPE) unit. The vendor said the trial took place in downtown Vancouver’s “5G Living Lab,” a joint initiative between Huawei and Telus. Huawei said the use of new 5G CPE is a new step towards the launch of consumer-oriented, 5G-ready products to market.
In late 2017, the City of Ottawa set up a 5G test site at Ottawa City Hall in partnership with the Communications Research Centre, a Canadian government research lab. The project aims to allow technology companies and other collaborators to learn from the CRC’s work and showcase their own innovations. Researchers can demonstrate advancements at the site. The CRC and the City of Ottawa are working together with technology companies and experts to help make Canada a leader in next generation networks, the partners said.
Last year, Bell confirmed it was conducting trials of 5G mobile technology in the 28 GHz and 3.5 GHz ranges. In a release to announce the telco’s quarterly financial results, Bell said it was carrying out the new trials in partnership with Chinese telecoms equipment provider Huawei. Bell previously demonstrated capabilities in the 73 GHz range in collaboration with Nokia.
