“Ottawa has long been a nurturing ground for some of the world's brightest minds in telecommunications,” said Charles Ding, Huawei North America president, in a statement.
It’s not immediately clear if this is an entirely new investment, or part of the announcement Huawei made in April when it officially opened its Ottawa facilities.
At the time, the Shenzhen-headquartered firm said it planned to grow its local workforce from 70 to 250 over two years and invest $50 million locally.
Key Huawei officials are currently away from the office and unable to elaborate on the provincial press release, according to a public relations spokesperson for the company.
Huawei quietly entered the Ottawa market almost two years ago, looking to establish partnerships with wireless communication technology companies, as well as universities and institutes engaged in advancing wireless communication research.
It was around that same time that the company was selected by Bell and Telus for a high-speed packet access network and began ramping up its Kanata operations, company officials previously said.
The local office is focused on the research and development of semiconductor, optical, wireless and routing and switching technologies. It also brings Huawei closer to its Canadian customers, company officials say.
In August, the company joined the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation. Some analysts cited by the Financial Post at the time suggested the move may be motivated in part by Huawei’s desire to use Canada as a beachhead to establish a greater presence in the United States, where the company has encountered political resistance.
.jpg)
