Verizon opened an innovation lab in New York City aimed at enabling startups and academics to develop new 5G use cases.
The operator reported the space features 5G capabilities to allow testing of use cases requiring increased speed and latency. Verizon SVP of strategy, innovation and product development Toby Redshaw explained the operator believes “one of the best ways to unleash the true possibilities of 5G is by getting it into the hands of innovators and visionaries”.
An initial cohort of six startups and two academic partners will take to the lab to trial technologies including augmented reality, multi-user virtual reality and optimised video delivery. Arvizio, BriefCam, Collinear Networks, Holojam, Mapfit, NGCodec, NYU Future Reality Lab and Columbia University’s Graphics and User Interfaces Lab are among the first participants, but Verizon indicated it will seek additional trial partners.
The news comes as Verizon gears up for initial deployments of its fixed-wireless 5G service in the second half of next year. The operator announced it will launch in three to five markets in 2018, starting in Sacramento, California.