CRC inducted into Telecom Hall of Fame

The Communications Research Centre (CRC) has received a special recognition award from Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame for more than 50 years of leadership in commercialization. Since its beginning in 1951 as the Defence Research Telecommunications Establishment within the Defence Research Board (DRB), CRC has been in the forefront of advances in telecommunications, including satellite communications, radio propagation, broadband network technologies and terrestrial wireless. It became an operating agency of Industry Canada in 1994 while DRB became Defence Research and Development Canada. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, CRC (then DRTE) spearheaded the Alouette satellite program. In 1978, it held the first public demonstration of Telidon, a precursor to the Internet. In the late 1970s, CRC scientists developed fibre Bragg grating, a key component for optical communications systems and a major royalty earner for the agency. The Hall of Fame was established as a non-profit organization in 2005 by Lorne Abugov, a telecom lawyer and senior partner with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. A gala awards dinner is slated for October 16 in Montreal....