The pair are among the first enterprises to deploy Verizon’s indoor 5G Ultra Wideband
The General Motors Factory Zero at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center and the new Honeywell corporate headquarters building in Charlotte, N.C. will be among the first enterprise facilities to install Verizon’s millimeter-wave-based 5G Ultra Wideband service inside their buildings. The companies will work with Verizon to develop customized use cases that address each of their specific needs.
Tami Erwin, CEO of Verizon Business, said that the its customers must “seize this moment to scale quickly” as “the acceleration to digital will only get faster.”
“We’ve opened the door to the 5G era and have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to completely reimagine the future of enterprise,” she continued. “Foundational to this is the power of Verizon’s 5G network coupled with our expanding portfolio of enterprise cloud applications and devices, including the powerful, new iPhone 12 lineup.”
GM’s recently announced Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center, known as Factory Zero, is an all-electric vehicle (EV) assembly plant, striving for a “zero-crashes, zero-emissions and zero-congestion future.”
The indoor 5G Ultra Wideband will provide coverage for the facility’s network, and according to Verizon, will speed up the time it takes GM to achieve its vision of the future by supporting advanced automotive manufacturing.
“Factory ZERO is GM’s flagship assembly plant in our journey to an all-electric future,” said Randy Mott, GM executive vice president and chief information officer. “This is another example of cutting-edge technology improving quality and speed as GM accelerates its rollout of EVs.”
For Honeywell, Verizon’s indoor 5G Ultra Wideband will serve their Innovation Center and Executive Leadership floor, delivering the high bandwidth and low latency where they they need to showcase different Honeywell products and solutions.
“I am super excited to deploy 5G in our state-of the art corporate headquarters where we will provide an unparalleled showcase of Honeywell products that help make our world smarter, safer, and more sustainable,” said Sheila Jordan, chief digital technology officer at Honeywell.
Private networks are increasingly being seen as the future of enterprise connectivity across numerous verticals as cellular technology can provided the security, reliability, latency and coverage necessary to power IoT and advanced enterprise technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence and AR/VR applications. Verizon called indoor mmWave 5G installations like the ones at Honeywell and GM “a critical step in the process to deliver a commercial private 5G solution.”
In related news, customers in 57 cities can now access the consumer version of Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband service, with a total of 60 cities planned by the end of 2020. In addition, users in Nashville and Akron also have access to Verizon’s 5G Nationwide network which runs on lower spectrum bands than 5G Ultra Wideband and uses Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS).
“Verizon continues its aggressive expansion of 5G Ultra Wideband service, adding to the growing list of cities with access to the amazing new capabilities this technology brings,” said Kyle Malady, Verizon’s CTO. “Customers in these cities are at the forefront of game-changing technology, with access to download speeds and bandwidth that will power the future of consumer, business and government mobile applications.”
