Huawei, one of the world’s largest telecommunications and ICT suppliers, announced a memorandum of understanding with Canadian telecommunications player TELUS, to establish a ‘5G Living Lab’.
This innovative new project will test approaches to deliver a next-generation converged fibre-wireless network in downtown Vancouver. The announcement was made on the occasion of the visit of the Premier of British Columbia, Christy Clark, to Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen.
To support this project, Huawei will be making a significant investment to design, test and deploy ground-breaking new technologies, leading towards the development of next-generation 5G based telecommunications networks.
This agreement follows TELUS’ recently announced $1-billion investment to expand its fibre optic network in Vancouver, which will ultimately provide the backbone to support highly efficient and lightning-fast wireless speeds as the development road maps for wireless and wireline networks converge around 5G concepts. Together, Huawei and TELUS are helping the City of Vancouver deliver upon its goal of becoming the worlds’ greenest city by 2020 through providing network capacity and speed that will enable “smart city” and other sustainability-focused technology initiatives.
“TELUS is recognized globally as one of the world’s most advanced telecommunications operators” said Ken Hu, Co-CEO, Huawei. “The opportunity to partner with TELUS to deploy innovative new technologies is critical to our global 5G research and development process and positions TELUS on the leading edge of next-generation telecommunications technology deployment.”
“This project will bring some of the most cutting-edge telecommunications technology available today to Vancouver, building upon our recently announced billion dollar investment to introduce fibre optic technology and further reinforcing our commitment to the city,” said Eros Spadotto, Executive Vice President of Technology Strategy for TELUS. “Working with Huawei, our efforts will lay the groundwork for delivering a converged fibre-wireless network with the potential to deliver dramatically faster wireless speeds, thereby improving citizens’ lives and generating significant new social, educational and economic opportunities. In addition, it will help all levels of government to build a greener, more inclusive and globally competitive Vancouver.”
