Comtech (Communications Technologies) Ltd. has signed a contract with a major U.S. company. Comtech's three-year contract involves construction services on the AT&T network with their TURF partner Goodman Networks, focussing on the Chicago area to start, with growth potential into Wisconsin, Texas and the U.S. mid-west.
The scope of services that the contract covers is the construction of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in the area on 700-plus fixed cellular locations, as well as completion of Third Generation (3G) construction on up to 800 locations.
"This is an exciting contract as Comtech has the privilege of involvement at the ground level of the technological breakthrough to the global standardization of the mobile market," said President and CEO of Comtech Aaron Grohn. "The growth of Comtech into the U.S. market will allow us to bring this knowledge and experience back into Canada to assist in the migration plan of the Canadian carriers to the general public."
Over the past two years, Comtech has been an integral part of the Canadian 3G mobile construction plan for a large variety of carriers. In an effort to achieve a more user-friendly, globally compatible platform, the North American marketplace has underwent an initiative to migrate from the recent primary Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) platform to the new Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), or 3G platform, on its way to the global standardization of LTE (4G or Fourth Generation) technology.
Grohn said that the long-term goal is global standardization of mobile technology to the LTE platform, allowing for a more enhanced user experience that is not based on a regional service level.
One of the necessary steps in getting to LTE in the migration path is to upgrade from CDMA to UMTS which employs 3G methods. Comtech has been involved in every capacity in this initiative in Canada over the past two years, working from the far Atlantic, through Ontario and out to Alberta and British Columbia. Most recently, Comtech had been very heavily involved in the local Saskatchewan market, working with SaskTel.
In North America, the evolution of this technological upgrade is lead by the United States, according to Grohn. In the U.S., the migration to the 3G platform was initiated long before Canada and therefore they are further ahead with the migration plan. Consequentially, where Canada is in the beginning stages of engineering and designing for the next phase (4G), the US market is beginning construction.
"Comtech's involvement in the Canadian market has not ended. Our Scope has simply changed from construction services to design and management services in preparation," said Grohn.
Comtech was founded in Weyburn in 1994 and now operates offices in Weyburn, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Medicine Hat, and Chicago.
