Verizon is launching 4 new 5G labs

Verizon’s first 5G lab is based in New York
City.
Verizon

• Verizon is launching four new 5G startup labs that will be
  fully operational by 2019.
• In addition to the New York City lab launched in 2017,
  Verizon is adding labs in Palo Alto, California; Playa Vista,
  California; Waltham, Massachusetts; and Washington, DC.
• The labs are startup incubators that bring entrepreneurs and
  innovators together to build and test new products that wouldn’t
  function without 5G.

Verizon has said that 5G will revolutionize the world, enabling
the latest advancements in industries from telemedicine to
autonomous vehicles.

But to fulfill that promise, the company must rely on third-party
businesses to drive this innovation — and the telco behemoth
wants a hand in steering that destiny.

To accomplish this, Verizon will add 5G labs to four US cities —
Palo Alto, California; Playa Vista, California; Waltham,
Massachusetts; and Washington, DC — by 2019 to ensure that the
big, innovative ideas they’ve touted come to fruition.

“The idea is that we’re not just building the network, we’re
creating the ecosystem with Verizon at the center,” Toby Redshaw,
senior vice president, 5G Ecosystems, Innovation and Product
Development for Verizon, told Business Insider.

Verizon’s labs are startup incubators that bring innovators
together to build and test new products that could only be
possible using 5G technology, according to Redshaw. It’s an
opportunity to utilize the 5G network before it’s commercially
rolled out.

Each lab will include entrepreneurs and innovators that match the
dominant industries native to that city. The New York City lab,
which launched in 2017, has innovators working on gaming,
healthcare, and fintech.

Verizon wants 5G to foster better health care and educational
products — not just faster data plans

Columbia University professor Stephen Steven Feiner, for example,
is running trials on a telehealth VR solution for motor rehab out
of the NYC lab. The trial features two people with a headset and
hand controllers and simulates the two holding onto the corners
of a wooden board together. The two people work at balancing a
ball on the board, typical rehabilitation practice for
individuals have lost some access in motor skills. The difference
is a patient and therapist could be miles away from each other
and still conduct these exercises.

Columbia University professor Stephen Steven Feiner
watches a trial of a telehealth VR product for motor-skill
rehab.
Verizon

The soon-to-be-opened DC lab will have a focus on
non-governmental organizations and public safety. Palo Alto has a
focus on technology startups, and education, while Playa Vista,
is bent toward media and entertainment.

And Waltham will focus on biotechnology and eSports. The Celtics
eSports team is one such innovation team that will work out of
the Waltham lab once it is officially lit up with 5G technology.

5G is about so much more than faster cell phone service

5G is expected to offer superior speed and other capabilities
that the current 4G LTE standard cannot. 5G latency speeds — the
delay before transfer of data — are expected to be under 10
milliseconds. For comparison, a blink of an eye takes about 300
milliseconds. 5G is also expected to offer higher bandwidth
capabilities — or the amount of data that
can be transmitted in a certain amount of time.

Verizon says that the newest advancements in remote medicine,
robotic surgery, and widespread self-driving cars are impossible
without 5G, a belief which seems to align with Verizon’s
strategic priorities.

In June it tapped Hans Vestberg, an expert in network
architecture, to run the company. It announced four initial
cities that will receive 5G and promised free YouTube
TV service and Apple TV 4K to anyone who signs
up. And more broadly, the company has signaled it
plans to steer clear of media M&A deals while the rest of the
industry seems hungry for more media assets.

In other words, Verizon is all in on 5G. But it can’t get
widespread buy in to the concept solely by promising a
lightning-fast network. For that, it needs the broader industry
to work together to embrace 5G.

“We are building out a helpful and hopefully humble ecosystem,”
Redshaw said. “The last thing we want to be is the big, ugly, we
know everything corporation. We want to be the agile
collaboration unit with these folks.”