Verizon opens 5G lab and studio in London

Offering its first 5G-enabled development and collaboration space outside the US, Verizon has opened a 5G lab and production studio in London to support its international business and media customers.

The facility’s aim is to showcase existing 5G use cases and experiences and offer a co-creation space for 5G-enabled application development. It is designed to offer technology innovators a space to grow the 5G ecosystem.

Verizon already operates 5G labs in in New York, Washington DC, San Jose, Los Angeles and Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company also opened a 5G first responder lab within its Washington DC facility, and a 5G esports training facility within its Los Angeles facility. It also recently announced its engagement, along with América Móvil, KT, Rogers, Telstra and Vodafone, in the 5G Future Forum, which aims to accelerate the delivery of 5G and mobile-edge computing-enabled solutions.

At its new UK home, Verizon says it envisages working with startups, academics and businesses to explore the boundaries of 5G network technology, co-create new applications and hardware, and rethink what’s possible in a 5G world. Potential use cases envisaged include exploring how autonomous vehicles, smart communities, virtual healthcare, smart manufacturing, the industrial internet of things (IIoT), immersive education, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), and responsive gaming can be enhanced with 5G’s superfast speeds, massive bandwidth and low latency.

Initial 5G-enabled verticals shown in the labs include advertising and entertainment, education, manufacturing, medical, retail, utilities and venues. These include a mobile command centre, an augmented shopping experience and smart retail shelving, intelligent asset management and AR-enabled workspace re-imagining.

“One of the best ways of unleashing the true possibilities of 5G is getting it into the hands of innovators and visionaries. Our London facility enables our international customers to benefit from this expertise as they look to deploy 5G-enabled applications and experiences”

“Verizon has proven expertise in delivering 5G in the US,” said Toby Redshaw, Verizon Business Group’s vice-president of innovation. “One of the best ways of unleashing the true possibilities of 5G is getting it into the hands of innovators and visionaries. Our London facility enables our international customers to benefit from this expertise as they look to deploy 5G-enabled applications and experiences.”

Complementing the London 5G lab facility will be a 5G-enabled production studio, also in London, to be opened in April 2020. The studio will offer a space where owned and operated brands from Verizon’s media division, as well as its partners and customers, can produce premium 3D content, including virtual and augmented reality experiences, using techniques such as volumetric capture, motion capture and AR broadcast.

It is also 5G-enabled, providing an incubator space for innovative creative companies to test and learn about how they can build content in the future that benefits from the technology’s capabilities to transmit massive amounts of data almost instantaneously.