Liberty Global announced the opening of its Belgian operator Telenet's Innovation Center in Brussels to test its new technology for connectivity, entertainment, and value added services.
The new center is Liberty Global’s second European hub dedicated to innovation, joining the Tech Campus near Amsterdam. The center will primarily focus on Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and mobile technologies – including the introduction and preparation of 5G networks.
In collaboration with a range of partners, Telenet will use the facility to test the upgrading of BASE mobile networks and the launch of 5G in Belgium.
The new center is also equipped with the latest 5G network components and antennas to ensure a premium testing environment, while it willexpand into testing entertainment, value added services and customer experiences solutions and technologies in 2018.
To mark its opening, the Innovation Center hosted app demos from a number of key partners, offering insight into the work that it will do. Chinese network ZTE, which has been working with Telenet since 2015, featured a demonstration of a new smart parking app based on NB-IoT, as well a preview of the center's corenetwork 5G and IoT installation in the ZTE Demo Room. Research institute IMEC announced a structural cooperation with Telenet in the areas of IoT and Smart Cities.
As part of this collaboration, Telenet will support The City of Things program which transforms the city of Antwerp into a living lab where businesses, researchers, citizens and city officials can experiment with smart technologies.
Finally, Spencer, in which Telenet invested this spring, demonstrated a mobile-first solution to help employees at large corporations by centralizing and synchronizing information from different enterprise tools into one single digital interface.
Balan Nair, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Liberty Global
The opening of the Telenet InnovationCenter is an important milestone for Liberty Global. The cutting-edge infrastructure and Telenet’s fully owned mobile network provide the perfect conditions for us to test the products and services that can pave the way towards the GIGAWorld.
John Porter, CEO of Telenet
Permanent innovation is the lifeline for our company, especially in a world of rapidly changing technology developments. With the Telenet Innovation Center, we want to be ambitious and bring our own innovations to a higher level, but also help shape external innovation projects.
