5G network at the heart of Rogers’ and UBC’s new environmental changes partnership

Rogers and the University of British Columbia (UBC) have teamed up to develop lifesaving projects powered by 5G technology.

Part of the focus of the partnership is directed towards wildfire management. The project will involve monitoring forest conditions in real-time through the use of a 5G network.

This would be vital for a province prone to wildfires and other climate-related disasters. According to the Government of British Columbia, 1,610 wildfires burned 868, 203 hectares of land this year alone. 35 percent of these were caused by nature and 60 percent by humans.

“The 2021 wildfire season in B.C. was the third-worst on record in terms of area burned,” said Dr. Mathieu Bourbonnais from UBC’s department of earth, environmental and geographic sciences, in a press release.

A second project is focused on teleoperations. It will offer telemedicine to residents in remote communities using a system combining mixed reality, haptic technology, control theory and 5G.

Monitoring emergencies and disasters is another area of interest. The goal will be to create a medical platform powered by 5G slicing to address larger situations in a timely manner.

“5G is a critical part of Canada’s future and the ecosystem around leveraging its full potential is as important as building out the network behind it,” said Joe Natale, president and CEO of Rogers, in a statement.

This is the next step in an ongoing relationship between the two organizations. They first came together in 2018 with plans to build a 5G hub in Vancouver’s UBC campus.

MobileSyrup reached out to Rogers for more information regarding the project’s future availability once it’s completed.

Update 16/11/2021 5:16pm ET: A representative from Rogers shared other projects will be worked on throughout the partnership.