Over the last three years, with lockdown restrictions and social distancing measures in place, people have counted on mobile networks to stay connected and access day-to-day services. As a result, mobile adoption has continued to grow. In 2021, the number of active connections nearly reached 10 billion globally, as mobile technologies and services generated $4.5 trillion of economic value globally, while approximately supporting 26 million jobs and contributing $500 billion to public sector funding. By the end of 2025, the global mobile market is expected to reach 11.7 billion connections while generating a total of $5 trillion of economic value.

Meanwhile, researchers are working on models, prototypes, solutions and services related to such technologies and innovations. In this context, Prof. Ronald Beaubrun, ing., Ph.D., professor in the department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Université Laval, founded the MONARC (MObile Network Application ResearCh) group, with the main objective of tackling problems related to planning and deploying the next-generation mobile networks, as well as designing and implementing services and applications that will be available on the infrastructure of such networks.