EXFO receives $15.9 million contribution from Canadian federal government to advance 5G telecommunications

QUEBEC CITY — EXFO, the communications industry’s test, monitoring and analytics experts, today shared the benefits to be derived from $15.9 million in funding from the federal government, including accelerating 5G technology development and job creation. The contribution will enable EXFO to establish a 5G Centre of Excellence in Montreal and create 50 high-skills job opportunities, primarily to be located in Montreal.

The infusion of funding for EXFO under the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development’s Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) was announced today at EXFO’s Montreal office by Rachel Bendayan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance.

“We are delighted to receive this funding from the federal government that will allow EXFO to leverage advanced cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning technologies to accelerate solutions delivering better insights while automatically predicting and detecting issues and outages in 5G networks,” said Philippe Morin, EXFO CEO. “Ultimately, our innovations will help service providers in Canada and beyond deploy 5G networks faster and more efficiently than ever before.”

The new jobs created as a result of the project will attract world-class talent such as research and data scientists, and software and telecom specialists, supporting the fields of 5G, AI, Machine Learning, and cloud computing.

“Canada’s world-class AI sector is getting even better thanks to the investment announced today. Our government will continue to promote and scale up innovative solutions that bring economic growth and jobs to all Canadians. That is why we are supporting projects like this one to develop one of the world’s first AI automated network solutions for 5G technology. We will always encourage and support made-in-Canada technology and ensure Canada remains a world leader in this field,” said The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.

5G is at the heart of network transformations happening globally, with service providers striving to extend reliable connectivity to users everywhere. Networks are supporting growing demand for everything from live-streaming of events and remote work to video-conferencing and gaming. Because of that, reliable communications infrastructure and services have never been more critical, and EXFO is working to ensure that the connected world meets the highest expectations.