Chatham’s Canquest Communications has recently inked a deal with the federal government that has executives at the local firm smiling.
The wireless branch of the company signed multi-year, multi-million-dollar contracts with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to provide two-way radio airtime services and radios along the Niagara Frontier. The deal covers four major border crossing points and 800 CBSA front-line personnel, John Smith, CEO of Canquest, said.
He said Canquest purchased a Niagara area radio company seven years ago and “revitalized it” to the point the government purchased airtime from Canquest over the past five years on an analog system.
Smith added he and his company knew the CBSA would like to upgrade to a higher security digital radio system, so Canquest began testing DMR – Digital Mobile Radio – in the region.
They then teamed up with Hytera Mobile Radios to provide the CBSA in the Niagara Region with radios and airtime.
“Hytera is a progressive company,” Smith said. “They provide the Chinese police force with radios. This is incredibly flexible technology.”
Hytera’s Tier III Pro design architecture is well suited for wide area public safety service and offers a wide range of features, according to a Canquest news release. It is highly configurable and manageable, and is easily expanded.
Smith said Canquest now operates seven transmitter sites in the Niagara Region, covering in excess of 25,000 square kilometres. Included in the coverage area is the entire Niagara Peninsula including south Lake Ontario, north Lake Erie, the Welland Canal, Burlington Bay and greater Hamilton area.
“This is incredible technology. The specialized software in the radios allowed us to fulfill the bidding requirements where others couldn’t,” he said of the request for proposal process with the federal government. “It gave us the edge.”
Smith said Canquest is looking to work with the federal government to expand the radio/transmitter service to other border areas across the country in the future.
Canquest Communications (Wireless) Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Canquest Communications (Canada) Inc. It is engaged in operating networks that provide a variety of Telecom services to its customers.
