The largest mobile operator in the US, Verizon, Tuesday announced that it aims to launch 5G field technology trials next year, ahead of the expected commercial rollout after 2020. The operator has collaborated with key technology vendors in this space, inclding Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm and Samsung to kick-off the inaugural Verizon 5G Technology Forum last month, and has established working teams to ensure an aggressive pace of innovation. The operator has created 5G network environments, or “sandboxes,” in Verizon’s Waltham, Massachusetts, and San Francisco Innovation Centers.
Verizon sets roadmap to 5G technology; Field trials to start in 2016. http://t.co/MBDuWOY3Pu https://t.co/JkO8Jr0kAT
— Verizon News (@VerizonNews) September 8, 2015
In addition to working with these vendors, Verizon’s 5G Technology Forum also includes a group of leading east- and west-coast venture capital groups focused on a variety of emerging technologies.
Verizon lays down the expected benefits of 5G, including about 50 times the throughput of current 4G LTE, latency in single milliseconds, and the ability to handle exponentially more Internet-connected devices to accommodate the expected explosion of the Internet-of-Everything.
Roger Gurnani, executive vice president and chief information and technology architect for Verizon
5G is no longer a dream of the distant future. We feel a tremendous sense of urgency to push forward on 5G and mobilize the ecosystem by collaborating with industry leaders and developers to usher in a new generation of innovation.
Marcus Weldon, chief technology officer of Alcatel-Lucent and president of Bell Labs
When you’re planning a technological evolution at this scale it must be a collaboration of players in the ecosystem. Having Verizon initiate this effort now, even as 4G LTE technology has so much headroom left, will no doubt add to the rich fabric of our digital lives for many years to come.
