TELUS Deploys Samsung’s 5G Network Infrastructure to Improve Social Outcomes

By Stephen Wiktorski, Head of Samsung Networks, Samsung Canada 

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