As 5G continues to dominate efficient telecommunications across the country, enterprise solution providers are looking to move WiFi-integrated firms from hotspot zones to private 5G networks.
At the McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute this week, Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions and Terago announced the wider launch of private 5G networks, deployable from automotive plants to mining pits.
Ericsson is developing technology that is being deployed by a variety of providers, including Terago, which holds 91 per cent of Canada's mmWave spectrum.
Terago's President and CEO, Daniel Vucinic, said that Canada is entering an age in which the 5G spectrum is now available with non‑competitive local licensing, enabling easier access to higher-performance, higher-bandwidth uploads and ultra-low latency.
"With robotics you get more consistency, scalability, performance, you see a lot of AMRs, eMBBs being added, and all of that gets connected with 5G private wireless networks," said Vucinic. "Why that's important to you is because licencing that spectrum is now available to anybody as part of it, so you don't have to go to big giant telcos and expensive spectrum."
Canada's federal government has opened a streamlined path for businesses to build their own private 5G networks without competing against major telecommunications carriers for spectrum. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) designed the non-competitive local licensing program to give small operators and businesses simple access to 5G wireless services, with the explicit goal of keeping the big players out of part of the band.
The program operates on a first-come, first-served basis and allows applicants to draw their own coverage boundaries. A licensee defines a licence area using up to 12 coordinate points anywhere in Canada, whether it covers a single building, a large mine or farm, or an entire remote community. Fees are calculated by multiplying a base rate by bandwidth and area size, starting at CAD $1.80 per MHz per square kilometre in cities and dropping to $0.01 per MHz per square kilometre in remote regions, with a $48 annual minimum.
ISED has pointed to smart factories, precision agriculture, remote healthcare, port operations and rural internet service as target applications. Licencees have two years to deploy at least one operational station, and any spectrum left sitting idle gets reclaimed and redistributed.
Jason Falovo, General Manager and Vice President, Canada for Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions, said that unlike traditional Wi-Fi networks, where shared passwords can create vulnerabilities and complicate access management, SIM-based systems restrict connectivity exclusively to authorised devices, offering a more private and secure alternative. Proponents say the model simplifies administration while closing off the backdoor risks that come with credential sharing.
"A lot of different environments with Wi-Fi, such as mines, such as factories - It's very difficult, like each one of these machines ... it's going to bounce the signal off of there. Wi-Fi itself is public spectrum, so whether it's 2.4, 5.0 and now with Wi-Fi 7.0 - these are all public net publicly available spectrum. So the challenge with that is just like in your home, there are Wi-Fi networks all around here, there's also Bluetooth networks all around here as well, so lots of issues with Wi-Fi in a manufacturing setting, much like there is in your home as well," said Falovo.
Private 5G networks can serve as the connective tissue of an AI-driven facility, according to Falovo, who likened the technology's range advantage over Wi-Fi to the difference between a call that drops the moment you step outside and one that stays live for kilometres.
"I think of private 5G as the AI factory nervous system," Falovo said, noting that, unlike a home Wi-Fi connection, which cuts out the instant a user moves beyond its limited range, a properly configured private cellular network can maintain seamless connectivity across vast industrial distances.
Falovo added that airports and ports are also turning to private 5G for secure, wide-area coverage where Wi-Fi falls short.
"There's a couple ports that we're working with in Canada right now where they're trying to get a network connected as the ships come off - that network is connected automatically, whereas with Wi-Fi that handoff trying to get the there's very difficult to do," said Falovo.
Vucinic pointed out that Canada is starting to innovate, even though the country is typically more conservative than many others, and that a lack of competition is curbing the drive to change.
"Why is the U.S., Europe and Asia that much further ahead than Canada? It's because they're leveraging technology and innovation. We're typically, as Canadians, a little bit more conservative than the rest of the world, as well as there is usually not as much competition here, but things are starting to catch fire," said Vucinic.
While private cellular networks are finding early adoption in the mining sector, Falovo said manufacturing represents the larger long-term opportunity. Mines present a compelling use case by necessity, as sprawling open-pit operations spanning kilometres of dusty terrain make traditional Wi-Fi infrastructure costly and technically complex, pushing operators toward private cellular networks as a practical alternative.
Manufacturing facilities, by contrast, still largely run on Wi-Fi, and most equipment on the floor today is built to work that way. But as the technology matures and more devices are built with native cellular support, the manufacturing floor is seen as the bigger prize, a significantly larger market waiting to open up.
"Especially with all the global trade discussions going on there's more in terms of natural resources and extracting that and supporting it, and so forth. So, I think we will see a lot more happening in that space," said Vucinic.
Falovo added, "If you looked at, even a year ago, some of the solutions [Ericsson] had and putting a bill of materials together - you know, we had to get a couple people internally to really understand the environments and what should be done with Terago, etc. It's getting a lot simpler, and the costs are coming down as well so I think you're really going to see a rise of manufacturing, especially if they're building now for the next five to 10 years."