NEW YORK—Verizon this week announced that it intended to launch 5G pilot programs in 11 U.S. markets by mid-2017. “Verizon’s 5G build is the largest proving ground in the world and encompasses several hundred cell sites that cover several thousand customer locations,” the cellular service provider said.
Verizon intends to launch “pre-commercial” 5G in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Atlanta, Bernardsville, N.J.; Brockton, Mass.; Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami, Sacramento, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
Verizon said the pilot program leverages its 5G Technology Forum partners, including Ericsson, which announced the development of a “5G core system” earlier this month.
“Ericsson’s partnership with Verizon in rolling out 5G customer trials is accelerating the global 5G ecosystem,” said Rima Qureshi, head of region North America for Ericsson. “These end-to-end solutions are a key step for preparing Verizon’s network for commercial deployment with different 5G scenarios and use cases.”
Verizon said the 5GTF partners, including Intel, Qualcomm and Samsung in addition to Ericsson and Verizon, are “well on their way to commercializing chipsets, infrastructure products, and consumer devices based on the 5GTF specification.”
Woojune Kim, vice president of the Next-Generation Business Team for Samsung, said, “The 5G systems we are deploying will soon provide wireless broadband service to homes, enabling customers to experience cost-competitive, gigabit speeds that were previously only deliverable via fiber.”
The Verizon said 5GTF has “delivered an open specification for 5G fixed wireless that is immediately implementable.”
In further developments in the wireless space, the Federal Communications Commission yesterday approved of the first use of unlicensed LTE in the 5 GHz band, with equipment modification grants for Ericsson and Nokia.
Also see...
Feb. 17, 2017
“Rohde & Schwarz Does 5G Field Measurements at 28 GHz”
Feb. 16, 2017
“Ericsson Launches 5G Core System”
Feb. 7, 2107,
“Report: 5G Poised to Challenge Cable, Satellite and IPTV”
Jan 24.2017
“AT&T Plans DirecTV Now Over 5G in Austin”
Sept. 6, 2016
“McAdams On: 5G Streaming”
June, 20, 2016
“Wheeler Pushes for 5G Spectrum Frontier”
Nov. 18, 2015
“Ericsson: 5G Mobile Subs to Hit 150 Million by 2021”
Jan. 26, 2015
“FCC Comments Urge Allocation of Spectrum Above 24 GHz for 5G And More”
Jan. 26, 2015
“Ofcom Consults on 5G Mobile Technology for the U.K. ”
Dec. 5, 2014
“IBM, Ericsson Collaborate on 5G Antenna Designs”
Nov. 24, 2014
“ZTE and China Mobile Test World's First 'Pre-5G' Massive MIMO Base Station”
Sept. 22, 2014
“Xilinx, China Mobile Research Institute Partner on Virtualized 5G Network”
July 10, 2014
“Ericsson 5G Reaches 5 Gbps”
June 12,2014
“Researchers Develop Innovative Solutions for 60 GHz 5G networks”
May 19, 2014
“5G Wireless Trial Planned in 15 GHz Spectrum”
May 20, 2013
“More Details Emerge on Samsung 28 GHz 5G Wireless Technology”
The technology works at 28 GHz and uses a 64-element adaptive antenna array to provide data rates of 1.056 Gbps over distances up to 2 km.
