The city is the destination of choice for wireless companies

Feb 18, 2010 13:39 GMT  ·  By

Anticipating the expansion of international wireless companies to North America, Ottawa, Canada's capital city, has invited them to join its 200-company, 18.000-employee wireless sector adding an endorsement from Richard Florida, the author of the "Who's Your City?" international bestseller. Florida rated Ottawa as the "Best Overall" city in Canada, surpassing other major cities like New York, Washington, Boston, San Jose or London, the capital of England, and based his statement on the 3Ts of economic development: Tolerance, Technology and Talent.

According to the Gartner research house, Ottawa's wireless sector produced revenues of $6.2 million in 2010 and forecasts have determined that, by 2013, revenues would reach $29.5 billion. The wireless industry in Ottawa has drastically increased in the last few years with the contribution of companies like DragonWave Inc. (wireless backhaul infrastructure), Bridgewater Systems (mobile personalization software) and March Networks Corp. (high-definition video surveillance applications), accompanied by many more young companies.

"Ottawa is pursuing wireless opportunities more aggressively than ever before," Michael Darch, executive director, Global Marketing at OCRI, said. "We have abundant talent and important technology in nearly all aspects of wireless. Add Richard Florida's endorsement of Ottawa as 'Best Overall' on his Creative Class Index to the mix and all the facts make Ottawa a very desirable location for wireless companies that want to be a part of Canada's Creative Economy Capital."

The wireless backhaul infrastructure company DragonWave has reported revenues of $107.3 million for the first nine months of the fiscal year 2010, a 235-percent increase compared with the same period last year. The company estimates that 2010 would bring $170 million in revenues from the sales of its packet microwave solutions.

The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) has placed Ottawa in the Top 7 Intelligent Communities of the world. Some of the factors that have led to this are the ability to adapt to change, leverage collaborative partnerships and the technology entrepreneurship. The technology sector in Ottawa currently numbers over 78,000 employees and 1,850 companies. With a population of over 900,000, it's the fourth largest city in Canada, with English and French being the predominant languages.

"I wholeheartedly agree Ottawa is an excellent North American location to establish and grow a wireless business," Peter Allen, president and CEO of DragonWave, a company that develops microwave gear that drastically increase the capacity of wireless networks under the immense data traffic generated by iPhone, BlackBerry and Kindle users, said. DragonWave was founded by four former Newbridge employees and was partially financed by the magnate Terrence Matthews.