StarMetro Vancouver 7 Nov 2019

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StarMetro Vancouver     –    7 Nov 2019  –   ME­LANIE GREEN

Canada’s wired fu­ture awaits — once it nav­i­gates Huawei, China and Don­ald Trump’s Amer­ica

 

THE AS­SO­CI­ATED PRESS

Bell and Telus await the fed­eral govern­ment’s de­ci­sion on Huawei’s 5G tech­nol­ogy, as they have sub­stan­tial in­vest­ments in the firm, ex­perts say.

The global race to 5G prom­ises a world filled with self-driv­ing ve­hi­cles, au­ton­o­mous garbage cans and in­ter­net con­nec­tiv­ity at a speed beyond what we’ve seen.

The Uni­ver­sity of Bri­tish Columbia an­nounced this week it’s be­come the first uni­ver­sity in North Amer­ica to cross the fin­ish line by be­com­ing a “smart cam­pus” that will func­tion as a testk­itchen of sorts for 5G ap­pli­ca­tions in a “real-life” set­ting.

“With 5G at our doorstep, we’re fo­cused on bring­ing to­gether Canada’s bright­est minds to re­search, in­cu­bate and com­mer­cial­ize ap­pli­ca­tions that will trans­form the way we live and work,” said Jorge Fer­nan­des, chief tech­nol­ogy of­fi­cer with Rogers Com­mu­ni­ca­tions.

“With 5G at our doorstep, we’re fo­cused on bring­ing to­gether Canada’s bright­est minds to re­search, in­cu­bate and com­mer­cial­ize ap­pli­ca­tions that will trans­form the way we live and work,” said Jorge Fer­nan­des, chief tech­nol­ogy of­fi­cer with Rogers Com­mu­ni­ca­tions.

But Canada still has a loom­ing de­ci­sion to make.

If this coun­try wants to be on the fore­front of de­ploy­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of the in­ter­net, the govern­ment must de­cide whether it will ban Chi­nese tele­com gi­ant Huawei from build­ing it in Canada, one re­searcher says.

THE POL­I­TICS AT PLAY

“One of the things af­fect­ing the rate at which 5G is de­ployed is cer­tain to be how, and if, the govern­ment will al­low Huawei into the Cana­dian tele­com struc­ture,” said Christopher Par­sons, se­nior re­searcher at Ci­ti­zen Lab at the Uni­ver­sity of Toronto’s Munk School.

Par­sons pointed to for­mer pub­lic safety min­is­ter Ralph Goodale’s com­ments that the de­ci­sion would come down af­ter the fed­eral elec­tion.

It’s a de­ci­sion that’s par­tic­u­larly charged, as it pro­vides a foun­da­tion for re­la­tions with China, the United States and Canada’s global al­lies.

Aus­tralia, New Zealand and the United States have al­ready blocked Huawei’s 5G equip­ment, cit­ing con­cerns it may en­able sur­veil­lance by the Chi­nese govern­ment — a charge the com­pany ve­he­mently de­nies. The Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion has been pres­sur­ing Canada to ban Huawei from its net­works.

Meng Wanzhou, chief fi­nan­cial of­fi­cer of Huawei Tech­nolo­gies, was ar­rested in Van­cou­ver in De­cem­ber 2018 on an ex­tra­di­tion re­quest by the United States. The Chi­nese govern­ment then ar­rested Cana­di­ans Michael Spa­vor and Michael Kovrig on vague charges re­lated to na­tional se­cu­rity.

Meng Wanzhou, chief fi­nan­cial of­fi­cer of Huawei Tech­nolo­gies, was ar­rested in Van­cou­ver in De­cem­ber 2018 on an ex­tra­di­tion re­quest by the United States. The Chi­nese govern­ment then ar­rested Cana­di­ans Michael Spa­vor and Michael Kovrig on vague charges re­lated to na­tional se­cu­rity.

They also tough­ened the sen­tence of a Cana­dian held on drug charges — chang­ing a 15-year pri­son sen­tence to the death sen­tence — and blocked Cana­dian canola ex­ports to China.

In July, Goodale said that Canada needed more in­for­ma­tion from the United States about the na­ture of the po­ten­tial se­cu­rity threat the U.S. be­lieves the com­pany poses be­fore mak­ing a de­ci­sion. Goodale has since lost his seat in Oc­to­ber’s elec­tion and cab­i­net min­is­ters are not ex­pected to be an­nounced un­til Nov. 20.

THE TWO WAVES OF 5G

Mean­while, Par­sons said there’s a “rou­tine” con­fu­sion when it comes to un­der­stand­ing 5G.

There are two stages: As part of the first, up­grades have al­ready im­proved our ex­ist­ing 4G net­works, al­low­ing our de­vices to move much faster, let­ting us share greater vol­umes of dig­i­tal data and mak­ing cer­tain tech­nol­ogy, such as aug­mented re­al­ity, pos­si­ble.

There are two stages: As part of the first, up­grades have al­ready im­proved our ex­ist­ing 4G net­works, al­low­ing our de­vices to move much faster, let­ting us share greater vol­umes of dig­i­tal data and mak­ing cer­tain tech­nol­ogy, such as aug­mented re­al­ity, pos­si­ble.

There are two stages: As part of the first, up­grades have al­ready im­proved our ex­ist­ing 4G net­works, al­low­ing our de­vices to move much faster, let­ting us share greater vol­umes of dig­i­tal data and mak­ing cer­tain tech­nol­ogy, such as aug­mented re­al­ity, pos­si­ble.

The other stage lies fur­ther into the fu­ture, and is the sub­ject of much of the 5G hype. It’s the stuff of self-driv­ing cars, smart ci­ties and au­ton­o­mous sur­gi­cal units. Par­sons said it will take Canada at least 10 years to get there.

The other stage lies fur­ther into the fu­ture, and is the sub­ject of much of the 5G hype. It’s the stuff of self-driv­ing cars, smart ci­ties and au­ton­o­mous sur­gi­cal units. Par­sons said it will take Canada at least 10 years to get there.

“That roll­out de­pends sig­nif­i­cantly on up­dat­ing the core in­fra­struc­ture of all tele­com net­works,” Par­sons said. “The ad­van­tages of 5G take place when the en­tirety of the back net­works and core in­fra­struc­ture is up­dated. That takes time and it is ex­pen­sive.”

THE SE­CU­RITY QUES­TION

Se­cu­rity threats ex­tend beyond the Chi­nese tele­com gi­ant as well, he added.

Sim­ply put, the bet­ter our net­work and the more in­ter­con­nected our world, the greater our vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties to bad ac­tors. Cur­rent net­works are con­stantly be­ing up­dated for se­cu­rity fea­tures and novel vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties in a 5G world are ex­pected.

The U.S. pres­sure on Canada over Huawei goes back to for­mer pres­i­dent Barack Obama’s days, Par­sons said.

“Those are ma­jor con­cerns. One un­der­ap­pre­ci­ated thing is the huge vol­ume of data Cana­di­ans send and use (that), in fact, passes through the U.S. be­fore re-ar­riv­ing back in Canada,” he said. “If Amer­i­cans gen­uinely do be­lieve it’s a na­tional se­cu­rity threat, that could have a se­vere im­pact here at home.”

“Those are ma­jor con­cerns. One un­der­ap­pre­ci­ated thing is the huge vol­ume of data Cana­di­ans send and use (that), in fact, passes through the U.S. be­fore re-ar­riv­ing back in Canada,” he said. “If Amer­i­cans gen­uinely do be­lieve it’s a na­tional se­cu­rity threat, that could have a se­vere im­pact here at home.”

The Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Se­cu­rity Es­tab­lish­ment (CSE) part­ners with the de­part­ment of Pub­lic Safety, Global Af­fairs Canada and In­no­va­tion, Sci­ence and Eco­nomic De­vel­op­ment to work to­gether to ex­am­ine the emer­gent tech and as­so­ci­ated se­cu­rity and eco­nomic con­cerns.

The CSE said it could not com­ment on spe­cific com­pa­nies but pointed to the govern­ment’s on­go­ing se­cu­rity re­view of 5G

“Many coun­tries, our al­lies in par­tic­u­lar, have been tak­ing a close look at this mat­ter for some time. The is­sues are well un­der­stood,” said Evan Koronewski, CSE me­dia spokesper­son. “We will be tak­ing ap­pro­pri­ate de­ci­sions in due course. We will en­sure that our net­works are kept safe for Cana­di­ans.”

In the U.K., Huawei equip­ment is de­ployed only af­ter it is eval­u­ated by the U.K.’S Na­tional Cy­ber Se­cu­rity Cen­tre. Find­ings pre­sented in a 2019 re­port to the U.K.’S na­tional se­cu­rity ad­viser stated that Huawei is grossly in­se­cure and poses “sig­nif­i­cantly in­creased risk to U.K. op­er­a­tors.”

Rogers Com­mu­ni­ca­tions part­nered with UBC to ad­vance its 5G re­search and avoided some of the se­cu­rity ques­tions by us­ing in­fra­struc­ture part­ner Eric­s­son. The com­pany is plan­ning for a na­tional com­mer­cial de­ploy­ment of its 5G net­work — more of the first stage, to which Par­sons al­ludes — in 2020.

Rogers Com­mu­ni­ca­tions part­nered with UBC to ad­vance its 5G re­search and avoided some of the se­cu­rity ques­tions by us­ing in­fra­struc­ture part­ner Eric­s­son. The com­pany is plan­ning for a na­tional com­mer­cial de­ploy­ment of its 5G net­work — more of the first stage, to which Par­sons al­ludes — in 2020.

Other play­ers in the mar­ket may ea­gerly await­ing the fed­eral govern­ment’s Huawei de­ci­sion. Bell and Telus, for in­stance, have “sub­stan­tive” in­vest­ments in Huawei, Par­sons said.

Huawei is able to pro­duce equip­ment at a cheaper cost than its com­peti­tors as it is sub­si­dized by the Chi­nese state, he ex­plained. The Chi­nese tele­com is ahead of the curve and stands to reap huge eco­nomic ben­e­fits and es­tab­lish it­self as a tech­no­log­i­cal pow­er­house, ac­cord­ing to global re­ports.

“Rip­ping out in­fra­struc­ture is not easy. Not with­out spend­ing bil­lions of dol­lars,” he ex­plained.

BIG COUN­TRY, BIG HUR­DLES

Canada will also have unique chal­lenges when it comes to fully adopt­ing the prom­ise of 5G.

Firstly, Par­sons said there is a risk of slow­down be­cause of push­back from mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties. To get speeds at 500 times the cur­rent phone stan­dard, thou­sands of small 5G tow­ers would have to be in­stalled in ev­ery city.

Firstly, Par­sons said there is a risk of slow­down be­cause of push­back from mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties. To get speeds at 500 times the cur­rent phone stan­dard, thou­sands of small 5G tow­ers would have to be in­stalled in ev­ery city.

“Where can you put these tow­ers? How quickly can they be de­ployed? Com­mu­ni­ties want 5G speed, but they don’t want tow­ers sit­ting around them,” he said. “Ur­ban en­vi­ron­ments may present a chal­lenge.”

Mean­while, Canada is large. That means it could be a very long time be­fore ar­eas out­side of ur­ban cen­tres will have 5G ser­vice, Par­sons said.

The hype and prom­ises around 5G are ex­cit­ing. For ex­am­ple, a re­mote com­mu­nity in B.C. could have a surgery per­formed re­motely by a doc­tor con­trol­ling the sur­gi­cal tools from Win­nipeg.

“But that’s only pos­si­ble if Win­nipeg and that north­ern com­mu­nity had 5G in­fra­struc­ture in­stalled,” Par­sons said. “That’s ex­pen­sive and it’s shared.”

“THE AD­VAN­TAGES OF 5G TAKE PLACE WHEN THE EN­TIRETY OF THE BACK NET­WORKS AND CORE IN­FRA­STRUC­TURE IS UP­DATED. THAT TAKES TIME AND IT IS EX­PEN­SIVE.”

“THE AD­VAN­TAGES OF 5G TAKE PLACE WHEN THE EN­TIRETY OF THE BACK NET­WORKS AND CORE IN­FRA­STRUC­TURE IS UP­DATED. THAT TAKES TIME AND IT IS EX­PEN­SIVE.”

Christopher Par­sons, Ci­ti­zen Lab , Uni­ver­sity of Toronto on ramp­ing up 5G tech­nol­ogy in a mas­sive coun­try like Canada

The Uni­ver­sity of Bri­tish Columbia an­nounced this week it’s be­come the first uni­ver­sity in North Amer­ica to cross the fin­ish line by be­com­ing a “smart cam­pus” that will func­tion as a testk­itchen of sorts for 5G ap­pli­ca­tions in a “real-life” set­ting.

“With 5G at our doorstep, we’re fo­cused on bring­ing to­gether Canada’s bright­est minds to re­search, in­cu­bate and com­mer­cial­ize ap­pli­ca­tions that will trans­form the way we live and work,” said Jorge Fer­nan­des, chief tech­nol­ogy of­fi­cer with Rogers Com­mu­ni­ca­tions.

But Canada still has a loom­ing de­ci­sion to make.

If this coun­try wants to be on the fore­front of de­ploy­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of the in­ter­net, the govern­ment must de­cide whether it will ban Chi­nese tele­com gi­ant Huawei from build­ing it in Canada, one re­searcher says.

THE POL­I­TICS AT PLAY

“One of the things af­fect­ing the rate at which 5G is de­ployed is cer­tain to be how, and if, the govern­ment will al­low Huawei into the Cana­dian tele­com struc­ture,” said Christopher Par­sons, se­nior re­searcher at Ci­ti­zen Lab at the Uni­ver­sity of Toronto’s Munk School.

“One of the things af­fect­ing the rate at which 5G is de­ployed is cer­tain to be how, and if, the govern­ment will al­low Huawei into the Cana­dian tele­com struc­ture,” said Christopher Par­sons, se­nior re­searcher at Ci­ti­zen Lab at the Uni­ver­sity of Toronto’s Munk School.

Par­sons pointed to for­mer pub­lic safety min­is­ter Ralph Goodale’s com­ments that the de­ci­sion would come down af­ter the fed­eral elec­tion.

It’s a de­ci­sion that’s par­tic­u­larly charged, as it pro­vides a foun­da­tion for re­la­tions with China, the United States and Canada’s global al­lies.

Aus­tralia, New Zealand and the United States have al­ready blocked Huawei’s 5G equip­ment, cit­ing con­cerns it may en­able sur­veil­lance by the Chi­nese govern­ment — a charge the com­pany ve­he­mently de­nies. The Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion has been pres­sur­ing Canada to ban Huawei from its net­works.

Meng Wanzhou, chief fi­nan­cial of­fi­cer of Huawei Tech­nolo­gies, was ar­rested in Van­cou­ver in De­cem­ber 2018 on an ex­tra­di­tion re­quest by the United States. The Chi­nese govern­ment then ar­rested Cana­di­ans Michael Spa­vor and Michael Kovrig on vague charges re­lated to na­tional se­cu­rity.

They also tough­ened the sen­tence of a Cana­dian held on drug charges — chang­ing a 15-year pri­son sen­tence to the death sen­tence — and blocked Cana­dian canola ex­ports to China.

They also tough­ened the sen­tence of a Cana­dian held on drug charges — chang­ing a 15-year pri­son sen­tence to the death sen­tence — and blocked Cana­dian canola ex­ports to China.

In July, Goodale said that Canada needed more in­for­ma­tion from the United States about the na­ture of the po­ten­tial se­cu­rity threat the U.S. be­lieves the com­pany poses be­fore mak­ing a de­ci­sion. Goodale has since lost his seat in Oc­to­ber’s elec­tion and cab­i­net min­is­ters are not ex­pected to be an­nounced un­til Nov. 20.

THE TWO WAVES OF 5G

Mean­while, Par­sons said there’s a “rou­tine” con­fu­sion when it comes to un­der­stand­ing 5G.

There are two stages: As part of the first, up­grades have al­ready im­proved our ex­ist­ing 4G net­works, al­low­ing our de­vices to move much faster, let­ting us share greater vol­umes of dig­i­tal data and mak­ing cer­tain tech­nol­ogy, such as aug­mented re­al­ity, pos­si­ble.

The other stage lies fur­ther into the fu­ture, and is the sub­ject of much of the 5G hype. It’s the stuff of self-driv­ing cars, smart ci­ties and au­ton­o­mous sur­gi­cal units. Par­sons said it will take Canada at least 10 years to get there.

 

https://www.thestar.com/vancouver/2019/11/05/ubc-shows-canadas-5g-future-awaits-if-it-can-navigate-the-politics-of-huawei-china-and-donald-trumps-america.html

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/starmetro-vancouver/20191107/281479278227196/textview