Verizon revealed a number of 5G announcements this past week
With a focus on accelerating the development of consumer, business and government agency 5G solutions, Verizon adapted the concept behind its seven 5G labs, located in the U.S. and the U.K., to a virtual space. The adaption, which resulted from social distancing measure put in place due to the pandemic, can be used to host virtual conferences, demo new solutions and host impromptu brainstorming sessions.
One of the most recently opened labs is in London and was announced this past February, a month or so before lockdowns began around the world.
The operator also stated in a press release that its newly acquired BlueJeans technology will be monumental in bringing the virtual lab to life.
The virtual lab, however, is only one of Verizon’s many recent announcements. In the same release, the operator revealed that its 5G Ultra Wideband mobile offering will go live in San Diego on May 28th, making it the 35th US city to have the service.
“Our customers’ need for 5G is accelerating,” said Kyle Malady, CTO for Verizon. “We’re building our 5G Ultra Wideband network to develop and enable the 5G innovations that will support changing the behavior of consumers, businesses and entire industries.”
Specifically, the coverage in San Diego initially will be concentrated in parts of Mission Valley near Westfield Mission Valley and SDCCU Stadium, Linda Vista along Linda Vista Road, Kensington near El Cajon Blvd and in Banker’s Hill on 1st Avenue.
In addition, Verizon responded to customer requests for making 5G uplink features available on their network. According to the company, customers can now upload content using the 5G network and can expect upload speeds of about 30% faster than on 4G.
Lastly, Verizon announced that it will be working with Movandi Corporation, Pivotal Commware, Inc. and Wistron NeWeb Corporation (WNC) to provide cutting-edge extender technology that will amplify millimeter wave coverage in public spaces and in homes, buildings and other locations.
Pivotal Commware CEO Brian Deutsch explained that the company believes that the massive bandwidth available at mmWave frequencies is necessary to achieve the immersive ultra-wideband 5G experience that Verizon’s network promises.
“We’ve turned the perceived underpinning weaknesses of mmWave into strengths using innovations in electromagnetic science,” he commented. “Our holographic beam forming technology solves mmWave coverage challenges outdoors and counteracts reflection, penetration and shadowing loss indoors — to achieve the gigabit speeds end-users expect and to deliver cost, size, weight and performance that is orders of magnitude improvement over legacy technology like phased array and MIMO.”
“Verizon is delivering a new era in wireless broadband with mmWave and we are delighted to be on the journey with them to fulfill the promise of ultra-wideband 5G,” he added.”
