The new facilities will be located in Washington DC, Palo Alto, Waltham and Los Angeles
Verizon will open four new 5G Labs this year, with the aim of accelerating the development of 5G use cases.
The carrier said that the new 5G Labs – to be located in Washington, D.C.; Palo Alto, California; Waltham, Massachusetts; and Los Angeles, California – will co-create new use applications and hardware. The new 5G Labs will all be open by the end of 2018.
“The future won’t be invented in boardrooms by people using slide presentations,” said Toby Redshaw, Verizon SVP of strategy, innovation and product development. “Our 5G Labs will be where collaboration and innovation happen. We’re opening access to our 5G network because we believe the next-generation solutions that will ride on it will be the result of collaboration and innovation by an entire ecosystem of developers.”
Each 5G Lab will have a live 5G network and will offer access to local startups, universities and technology companies to develop, test and refine future 5G solutions.
In December 2017, Verizon opened a 5G-enabled open innovation lab in New York to work with start-ups and academics to unlock new use cases and experiences through trials and prototypes using Verizon’s pre-commercial 5G technology. This location already helped several technology and academic partners develop and prove-out a number of innovative 5G solutions including immersive education, remote healthcare, cloud gaming, and mixed reality solutions for enterprises.
The Verizon 5G Labs will concentrate on the following industries and technologies:
New York City: Media and financial technology
Waltham: Robotics, healthcare and real-time enterprise solutions
Palo Alto: Emerging technology, education and big data
Washington, D.C.: Public safety and first responders, cyber security and hospitality
Los Angeles: Immersive experiences such as augmented reality and holograms
Verizon recently announced it will launch 5G residential broadband service in four markets in the U.S. – Los Angeles, Sacramento, Houston and Indianapolis – in the second half of 2018, followed by a mobile 5G solution in early 2019. The initial fixed wireless deployment is based on a proprietary standard developed by Verizon and partners, and will be upgraded to the 3GPP non-standalone 5G New Radio standard as the carrier works to stand up mobile 5G services in 2019.
