Wireless networking technology company Ericsson Canada announced it is expanding its previously announced partnership with the federal government through investments totaling more than $630 million in research and development centres.
The funding, announced Thursday at a press conference in Ottawa, builds on a $470 million commitment announced last year as part of a five-year research and development collaboration.
Ericsson, which has 3,100 Canadian employees, said the funding will create hundreds of jobs and provide training at its facilities in Ottawa and Montreal. These sites will serve as research and development hubs for advanced mobile networks, artificial intelligence, and quantum technologies.
The total investment is $634.8 million, which will be spent over five years to “advance next-generation communications technologies” such as 5G and 6G networks. The funding will also further strengthen Ericsson’s partnerships with more than 20 higher education institutions in Canada.
The company said it will create approximately 200 jobs and more than 600 cooperatives through the university partnership during the five-year agreement.
“Investing in Canada is quite attractive,” said Berger Ekholm, president and CEO of Ericsson.
He noted that Ericsson, like other Canadian-based technology companies, is impressed by Canada’s talent “ecosystem.”
“Canada has been investing in education for quite some time,” he said. “Immigration is really continuing to happen. I think that’s a positive for us because we can develop talent here.”
The partnership between Ericsson and the federal government, announced in April 2023, is aimed at putting Canada “at the forefront of global developments in next-generation communications technologies,” the company announced last year.
The centers in Montreal and Ottawa will focus on developing quantum communications and AI-powered network management, while also expanding the company’s Cloud RAN, 5G Advanced and 6G capabilities.
“Our partnership with Ericsson solidifies Canada’s position as a leader in next-generation networks,” Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in a media statement.
“With increased investment, we will not only support today’s 5G networks, but also advance the technologies that will shape our future and continue to make Canada a leader in these areas.”
Ekholm said some of the work being done at the two facilities is focused on expanding service capabilities on mobile networks.
While the evolution of network technology to date has been critical to enabling the current level and availability of data, the next step is to make networks “programmable,” he said.
This means allowing consumers and organizations to run “numerous services” over mobile networks. He said network improvements would make things like financial transactions and police communications more secure.
“In fact, the network can be seen as a horizontal platform on which new services can be delivered,” Ekholm says.
“From a consumer perspective, 4G networks already have a lot of capacity, but 5G, 5G Advanced, and 6G will make even more capacity available.”
