Telus says it won’t ‘pre-announce’ its 5G plans for competitive reasons

Telus’ CEO Darren Entwistle has said that the carrier is not going to pre-announce its 5G plans for competitive reasons.

During its Q4 2019 earnings call, the carrier noted that it is “focusing on getting the execution right from day one” and will make the announcement once it is ready to do so. This means that the carrier won’t be announcing its 5G vendor until it is ready.

Entwistle noted that Telus is going to be watching for key spectrum to become available, which is the 3.5GHz that the government is going to auction sometime this year. This specific spectrum is crucial for 5G in terms of speed and latency.

Rogers, which has partnered with Ericsson for its 5G equipment, started to roll-out its 5G network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver in January.

Last week, Bell announced that Nokia is its first 5G vendor, and that it wants to work with many equipment suppliers including Huawei. The Canadian government has yet to decide if it will allow Huawei to participate in 5G deployment.

“5G is going to drive significant improvements as it relates to productivity, innovation, efficiency and most importantly digital transformation,” Entwistle said during the call.