Representatives from the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation crossed the Atlantic to the Future of Wireless International Conference in Cambridge, U.K to promote Ottawa’s wireless ecosystem.
The presentation has led to plans to sign a memorandum of understanding with Cambridge Wireless with plans to increase business between the U.K. and Ottawa wireless sectors.
Cambridge Wireless is a networking organization with the aim of bringing together members of the wireless community.
Representatives from Ottawa pitched the city as “one of the world’s most desirable wireless ecosystems,” according to a press release.
The pitch was made noting that four of world’s top wireless companies (Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson and Huawei,) have research and development facilities in Canada’s capital and that Ottawa still has home-grown wireless companies like DragonWave and Bridgewater Systems in the wake of tech giant Nortel’s demise.
Besides the companies, Ottawa also hosts two nationally funded research labs in the Communications Research Centre and the National Research Centre as well Carleton University and the University of Ottawa.
Aside from straight R&D, there are also plenty of mobile app creators and mobile gaming companies among other software development for the wireless space.
“Ottawa wireless companies are building the next generation of wireless equipment, devices, components, sub-systems, middleware, apps and services, content, enablers, and professional services,” said OCRI Executive Director of Global Marketing Michael Darch in the release.
“Ottawa has the critical mass of brainpower, education institutions, government R&D labs and entrepreneurial dynamism that makes it an ideal home for knowledge-based enterprises, particularly in the wireless industry.”
Darch also noted the city’s resilience in the face of the global economic meltdown in 2008.
Along with this announcement, OCRI is continuing to make the pitch to bring more wireless business to Ottawa with the launch of a new web site: Canada’s Creative Economy Capital.
The site hosts success stories from the capital’s technology and wireless industry, as well as providing reasons for other companies and entrepreneurs to set up shop in Ottawa.
The Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI) is one of Canada's most successful partnership organizations. We are the rallying point for... [more]
Robert Janelle
Robert Janelle is a freelance technology journalist living in the National Capital Region. He's spent time covering the Ottawa start-up scene as a columnist and feature writer with his work in National Capital Scan, The Ottawa Citizen, The Ottawa Sun, Kingston Whig-Standard and The Escapist. He also suffers from a mild addiction to video games.
