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In today’s economy, the best networks are not defined by speed alone. They also need to deliver high performance, trust, coverage, and energy efficiency. These qualities support Canada’s ability to innovate, attract investment, ensure that growth is both inclusive and sustainable, and bridges the digital divide to underserved communities.  

The Government of Canada’s Digital Charter, Innovation and Skills Plan, and 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan emphasize that technology leadership, inclusion, and sustainability are pillars of long-term prosperity. Achieving these goals depends on resilient networks that combine performance with responsibility, and which enable advanced manufacturing, clean-energy systems, smart mobility, and secure public-service delivery across every region.

At the same time, artificial intelligence is emerging as a national growth engine and is poised to transform industries from healthcare to manufacturing. But its success depends on the strength of the networks that enable it.

Recent industry commentary has underscored that Canada’s AI ambitions will only succeed if supported by robust digital infrastructure. Advanced, high-capacity, and low-latency networks are essential for delivering AI solutions, connecting data, compute, and users in real time. For Canada to turn its research advantage into commercial leadership, digital infrastructure must evolve in lockstep with AI innovation.

Canada’s digital transformation will depend on AI, cloud and networks engineered to perform, optimized to save, built to connect communities, and designed to be trusted.

High performance: Powering the digital economy

High performance today means more than speed. It means capacity, reliability, and resilience. As digitalization accelerates, networks must deliver consistent quality and support the exponential growth in mobile data traffic while remaining energy-efficient and secure.

Modern multi-band radios—which combine advanced hardware with AI and cloud—help to improve throughput, optimize spectrum use, and lower operating costs. These innovations allow operators to expand coverage and capacity while reducing the amount of equipment and site infrastructure required.

For example, Ericsson’s AIR triple-band Massive MIMO (multiple inputs multiple outputs) radios combine three spectrum bands in a single unit, doubling downlink and tripling uplink capacity—a clear advance in both capacity and coverage. The broader Massive MIMO portfolio expands throughput and cell-edge performance without adding new sites, an important efficiency lever for large geographies like Canada.

Ericsson’s collaboration with telco operators globally demonstrates how in some cases modernization achieves measurable results: 20 to 25 per cent power savings efficiency gains while supporting a 96 per cent increase in 5G traffic.

Energy efficiency: Supporting Canada’s sustainability journey

Energy efficiency is now a defining measure of network leadership; it’s both a business and environmental imperative. Studies show that energy costs account for 15 to 20 per cent of total network operating expenses, making efficiency central to performance and profitability.

Ericsson’s Breaking the Energy Curve framework allows operators to expand capacity while reducing energy use per transmitted bit. This is accomplished through three actions: sustainable network evolution, expand and modernize the network and operate intelligently. For example, modernizing low-traffic, remote sites with energy-adaptive radios and AI-driven power management can cut emissions and costs while maintaining coverage across Canada’s 10 million square kilometres.

Through its partnership with the Government of Canada’s Net-Zero Challenge, Ericsson is helping align optimizing and expanding coverage where needed, telecom modernization with national clean-energy goals. 

Trust: The foundation of a digital society

As Canada transforms its economy and public services, trust and security are essential to progress. Every data exchange and connected device depends on networks that are resilient, transparent, and secure by design.

Ericsson embeds security at every stage through its Security Reliability Model (SRM), ensuring protection is built in, not added later. This model spans the full telecom ecosystem, supported by continuous monitoring and threat detection to maintain operational integrity.

Adherence to global standards such as 3GPP, ISO/IEC 27001, and NESAS/SCAS reinforces confidence in the confidentiality, integrity, and reliability of Ericsson networks. Recognition as one of Canada’s Top International Corporate Citizens in 2025 by Corporate Knights underscores Ericsson’s broader commitment to ethical, transparent, and sustainable business practices—key ingredients of public trust in a digital society.

Trusted networks protect infrastructure, safeguard data, and enable a secure, resilient, and inclusive digital future for Canada.

Ericsson’s contribution to Canada’s digital leadership

Ericsson’s commitment to Canada goes beyond technology deployment; it’s an investment in the country’s innovation ecosystem, workforce, and long-term competitiveness. Over the past year, the company has significantly expanded its footprint through new research and development (R&D) partnerships with government, industry, and academia.

In October, Ericsson announced a US$3 billion partnership with Export Development Canada (EDC) to expand the global reach of 5G, Cloud RAN, AI and to create new opportunities for ºÃÉ«tv companies within Ericsson’s global partner network. 

This follows a $634.8 million R&D agreement with the Government of Canada in November 2024 under the Strategic Innovation Fund, a five-year commitment focused on developing advanced communications technologies and creating high-value ºÃÉ«tv jobs.

These partnerships will create and upskill hundreds of roles at Ericsson’s R&D centres in Ottawa and Montréal, enhance collaboration with ºÃÉ«tv universities, and boost participation in global supply chains. 

In September, Ericsson expanded its research collaboration with Concordia University, backed by an NSERC Alliance grant, to enhance cloud-native mobile network security. Recently, Ericsson, Saab, and Calian agreed to explore collaboration in advanced, secure communications systems. As technology evolves and reshapes defense, secure, unified systems are vital for Canada’s resilience and public safety- especially for coordinating first responders during disasters. 

These efforts show a long-term commitment to positioning Canada as a leader in telecom innovation, AI, quantum research and building a resilient digital economy with trust technology.

A shared path toward digital and sustainable leadership

Canada stands at a pivotal moment in its digital transformation. The nation’s ambitions for economic growth, sustainability, and global competitiveness depend on a network foundation that is high-performing, energy-efficient, and trusted.

Ericsson’s collaboration with ºÃÉ«tv partners—spanning modernization, energy innovation, and security—reflects a shared commitment to building that foundation. From next-generation radio technology that expands capacity and coverage to AI-driven network intelligence that lowers energy use to security-by-design principles that protect data and infrastructure, these advances form the backbone of a connected, low-carbon economy.

Artificial intelligence and cloud are converging with telecommunications. Networks serve as the delivery system for AI by connecting data, devices, and decisions in real time—and high-performing networks provide the speed and capacity that AI needs. Energy-efficient networks make that intelligence sustainable, and trusted networks ensure it remains secure.

As government and industry pursue inclusive, sustainable growth, the networks that link communities and power AI will define Canada’s success.