In March 2021, Samsung was named sole vendor of SaskTel’s 5G network deployment, and in December 2021, opened a regional office in Regina to support the implementation.

Leveraging Samsung’s full, end-to-end 5G solution, SaskTel’s 5G network makes it possible to deliver hyper-fast data speeds of up to 1.2 Gigabits per second (Gbps), allowing customers to connect faster than at present. Once fully deployed, the 5G network will deliver enhanced capacity and ultra-low latency, enabling new use cases for wireless technology and next-generation innovations such as smart cities, immersive healthcare, agri-tech solutions and gaming.

For more information on Samsung Canada Networks, visit

https://www.samsung.com/ca/business/networks-solutions/5g-networks/

On June 22, Samsung Electronics will reveal how it is leading the evolution of next-generation networks at the event of “Samsung Networks: Redefined.”

Join us to discover how the company’s cutting-edge technologies will help unleash the full power of 5G, ultimately creating a more seamlessly connected society.

The event will be available at Samsung Newsroom, Samsung Networks’ YouTube channel beginning at 10:00 a.m. EDT.

“SaskTel’s deployment of a transformational 5G network will foster continued innovation and support the growth of Saskatchewan’s technology sector,” said Don Morgan, Minister Responsible for SaskTel. “5G technology will deliver new levels of performance and efficiency that will enhance user experience and set the foundation for smart cities, next generation virtual healthcare, immersive education, smart agriculture technology and next level gaming.”

“We are pleased to select Samsung as the sole vendor for our 5G network deployment and we are confident that Samsung’s state-of-the-art 5G technology will deliver robust network capability and exceptional connectivity inherent in their 5G solutions,” said Doug Burnett, SaskTel President and CEO. “The increased speeds, reliability, and capacity that 5G brings will support remote work, virtual health, and distance education, and enable SaskTel’s customers to realize the full capabilities of the latest 5G-ready devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G.”

“We are excited to collaborate with SaskTel to roll out next generation 5G services within Saskatchewan, further expanding our 5G horizons in Canada with unparalleled 5G network solutions,” said Jeff Jo, President and CEO of Samsung Electronics Canada. “Samsung is looking forward to supporting SaskTel and providing an end-to-end 5G solution exhibiting Samsung’s ongoing global commitment to advancing a new era in 5G expansion.”

Since 2010, SaskTel has invested over $3.0 billion in capital throughout Saskatchewan to bolster its networks and the investment in 5G technology will prepare for the future demand and deliver an exceptional user experience. SaskTel is committed to investing $324 million of capital across Saskatchewan in 2020-21 and over $1.6 billion through to 2025. These investments will ensure that SaskTel customers will continue to enjoy some of the best communication and entertainment services in the world.

With a commitment to delivering communications and technological innovations that foster social-purpose, economic growth and job creation goals in Canada, TELUS embarked on a journey to deploy its next-generation 5G network. TELUS is building new infrastructure and providing innovative services that, among other benefits, can increase access to healthcare for Canadians and improve healthcare providers’ efficiencies. At the same time, the company is expanding its agriculture technology services to help solve the challenges of feeding the world’s population. 

TELUS is a dynamic, world-leading communications and information technology company that is creating new services that improve businesses of all sizes – from global enterprises to smart cities to home-based service providers. The company is building its 5G network to empower Canada, using innovative solutions that will connect people and businesses with their passions.

TELUS selected Samsung to support the development of its 5G network, which will help it continue offering its customers the fastest average download speeds in the world[1]. While speed is important, TELUS and Samsung expect the new 5G network to be the foundation that supports and powers next-generation solutions that allow TELUS to intensify its focus on social purpose, the center of TELUS’ mission.

Improving Access to Healthcare for Canadians with 5G

The year 2020 brought the importance of ubiquitous high-speed connectivity to the forefront, with a focus on people’s health and wellness. TELUS — already a key player in many aspects of digital health — are well-positioned to leverage the increase in reliable bandwidth and speed provided by its 5G network, to the benefit of Canadians.

“TELUS expects these new networks will provide better, faster, more reliable connectivity that will optimize medical office workflow systems,” says Eros Spadotto, Executive Vice-president of Technology Strategy and Business Transformation. 

5G’s reliable, low-latency connectivity helps ensure that applications like electronic medical records (EMR) and robust digital healthcare solutions raise the productivity of physicians, hospitals, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals that improve the patient outcomes.  The 5G network also powers the connectivity that enables safe remote telehealth visits that require high-quality voice and video communications between patients and medical providers. Samsung’s 5G equipment will help TELUS continue bridging the digital divide to connect top-quality healthcare services across Canada.

Deploying 5G Networks will Help Harvest Better Food Outcomes

In addition to improving healthcare, feeding the world is one of the largest challenges of our generation and it has become core to TELUS’ social purpose mission. The company has set its sights on increasing the volume of crops picked and improving the entire agriculture supply chain to drive better food production utilization. With 5G-powered connectivity, IoT sensors can span the agriculture ecosystem – from seed producers on the front end to grocers delivering the produce to those who are hungry. IoT data allows advanced systems to examine this information along with the millions of “acres” of additional data to identify actionable trends that can derive better results.

With Samsung’s 5G technology and partner solutions, TELUS expects to improve coverage for farmers and bridge the digital divide. 

“While it is important to build network connectivity that allows farmers to improve business operations, it’s also essential to analyze their production results to identify trends that can help the industry optimize the supply chain and prevent waste. We are entering into an ‘insights economy’, and 5G and AI are enabling it,” Spadotto said.

Creating Smart Cities with 5G

Support for IoT in 5G, which can support up to 1 million devices per square kilometer, also offers new opportunities to efficiently expand IoT solutions, like those used in smart cities. Coupling the high volume of reliably connected devices to edge-based applications enabled by 5G helps TELUS extend the efficiency of smart city solutions. Moreover, incorporating 5G capabilities like network slicing and multi-access edge computing can establish private wireless networks to support the low-latency connectivity needed for real-time services like video-based security and surveillance.

Samsung innovation that intrigued TELUS went beyond 5G devices, RAN, and Core. AI-powered metrics and unique push-to-talk applications further differentiated the Samsung end-to-end solution to support smart city services. 

Mr. Spadotto stated, “We are excited with Samsung, as we see them partnering with us to create new applications that can extend our smart city construct, like Mission Critical PTX.”

Samsung is Right for TELUS

To ensure it will have the network that supports these high expectations, TELUS went through an in-depth evaluation of its 5G options. With its goal to be the best provider, TELUS knows that the network must be reliable and provide top performance. The company’s evaluation process showed that Samsung met necessary requirements to serve as its vendor of choice. 

“TELUS saw Samsung demonstrate the same important attributes that we deliver to our customers: honesty, commitment to excellence, and innovation,” offered Mr. Spadotto. 

The full range of Samsung 5G products plays a crucial role in TELUS’s 5G services, including a wide range of user devices, 5G network equipment, and an AI platform to analyze operations data. AI is a critical component of 5G for TELUS, and Zhilabs, a Samsung company, provides TELUS with a compelling AI platform that will help them derive clear understandings of network performance. Using AI-derived operational insights, TELUS has the power and flexibility to optimize its network while innovating new solutions. Samsung is proud to collaborate with TELUS to provide 5G capabilities that will support its focus on improving lives worldwide, and the partnership is set to fuel innovations that will be sought worldwide.

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[1] https://www.opensignal.com/reports/2020/09/global-state-of-the-mobile-network-experience-awards

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Videotron today announced the launch of 5G service to Videotron’s users. Videotron’s 5G service sets Montreal, Canada’s second largest city, as the starting point of the 5G commercial rollout and will expand in time throughout Videotron network across the province of Quebec.

After many successful decades in the cable television and internet access business, Videotron deployed its wireless operation in 2010 and has been the fastest growing new operator since then. With the combined effort, Videotron has now successfully expanded its services to 5G.

For the launch, Samsung has provided 5G RAN, which covers 600MHz, 700MHz, 2.6GHz and AWS spectrums. Moreover, Samsung’s 5G RAN supports both LTE and 5G NR, enabling convenient operation of a network, and saves installation space while reducing CAPEX and OPEX.

“Collaboration with Samsung for 5G service set us ready to meet the highest expectations of our customers.” said Jean-François Pruneau, President and CEO of Videotron. “By stepping up our collaborative efforts, we will deliver enriching experiences and keep Quebecers connected to all they care about. We are thrilled to offer a renewed connectivity experience that will accompany our customers in their daily lives.”

“Samsung is pleased to support Videotron for its first 5G service. This commercial rollout will open up new exciting experiences for Videotron’s 5G users,” said Jeff Jo, President and CEO of Samsung Electronics Canada. “Together with Videotron, Samsung will leverage its successful 5G experiences to bring reliable and advanced 5G services to users in Canada.”

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios, and core network technologies. Samsung supports 5G commercial services in the world’s leading markets, including Korea, the U.S. and Japan. In addition, the company is rapidly expanding its global footprint to new markets including Canada and New Zealand.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced they have been selected as the 5G networks infrastructure supplier for TELUS (NYSE:TU), a world-leading telecommunications service provider in Canada. 

Samsung is rapidly expanding its customer pool, signing four new 5G contracts in the last seven months including operators in Canada, US and New Zealand. Deploying a 5G network for TELUS exhibits Samsung’s ongoing global commitment to advancing a new era in 5G expansion. With this latest agreement, Samsung will play a large part in helping TELUS build out its nationwide 5G network, laying groundwork for Samsung’s presence as one of the primary telecom vendors in Canada. 

“We are pleased to select Samsung as a 5G vendor for our mobile services, leveraging the enhanced network capability, exceptional connectivity and state of the art technology inherent in their 5G solutions,” said Darren Entwistle, President and CEO, TELUS. “This development in our 5G ecosystem is a testament to our team’s innovation, skill and grit in building a world-leading 5G experience for Canadians from coast to coast, and from urban to rural.”

“We are excited to have earned TELUS’ trust to roll out next generation 5G services together, leveraging our successful experiences in commercializing 5G across multiple leading markets,” said Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “As a longstanding innovator in the 5G space, Samsung is looking forward to supporting TELUS, and in playing a key role in expanding new 5G horizons in Canada with unparalleled 5G network solutions.”

TELUS is a world-leading communications and IT company with customer connections spanning data, IP, voice, television, entertainment video and security. Since 2000, TELUS has invested nearly $200 billion in wireless and fibre optic network infrastructure, spectrum and operations to enhance the coverage, speed, and reliability of its networks to connect customers across one of the most vast, geographically challenging landscapes and diverse populations in the world. Its 4G LTE network has been recognized as one of the fastest in the world, heralded for top network speeds, resiliency, and latency by third parties including Open Signal, Tutela, J.D. Power, Ookla, and PCMag.

Samsung’s first entry into the Canadian market via Videotron

Samsung Electronics today announced that it will provide 4G LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) and 5G radio access networks solutions to Videotron, a Canadian telecommunications operator. This is the first time Samsung is delivering network solutions in Canada.

After many successful decades in the cable television and internet access business, Videotron deployed its wireless operation in 2010 and has been the fastest growing new operator since then. Currently providing 4G LTE service, Videotron plans to launch commercial LTE-A and 5G services in late 2020.

Starting in early 2020, Samsung will deliver 4G LTE-A solutions across Quebec and Ottawa in which the solutions from Samsung include Massive MIMO and Dual-band base stations, supporting the operator’s 4G LTE frequencies, and 5G solutions for both 3.5GHz and 28GHz spectrum. 

Providing commercially proven 4G LTE-A solutions and combined with 5G commercial solutions from global markets, Samsung will increase efficiency in accelerating expansion of 5G service coverage to match pace with Canada’s 5G commercial launch, which is expected to take place in late 2020. 

“We have been all over the world to find the best supplier suited to meet the evolving needs of our customers. This partnership will allow us to deliver the most advanced telecommunications solutions to Quebecers. While 4G technology has profoundly transformed telecommunications in the world, LTE Advanced and 5G will undoubtedly revolutionize the way we interact with our loved ones and the environment around us,” said Jean François Pruneau, President and Chief Executive Officer of Videotron. “We want to be with our customers through these major changes and the choice of Samsung as a supplier is not a coincidence, we are convinced that they represent the best option to achieve this objective. Videotron has always been at the forefront of major technological changes and the arrival of 5G is no exception. Today’s announcement is a very proud moment for us.”  

“Signing a contract with Videotron to provide 4G LTE-A and 5G network solutions will be marked as a significant milestone for Samsung, and Samsung will be the part of evolving next generation of mobile communication technologies in Canada by delivering advanced technologies,” said Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, Executive Vice President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “Leveraging the global experience of 5G commercialization from leading 5G markets like Korea and the U.S., Samsung will increase its position in 4G LTE and 5G vendor market.”