Growing the 5G ecosystem – Verizon expands 5G Labs to new locations on East and West Coasts

NEW YORK – Building on the success of its 4G LTE Innovation Centers and its first 5G incubator in New York City at Alley, a membership community for entrepreneurs, Verizon is expanding the program to new locations on the East and West Coasts. Working with a new array of innovators across a variety of verticals, Verizon will further accelerate the development of tomorrow’s 5G use cases and experiences while bringing all the locations under a new brand identity that reflects Verizon’s vision for 5G development.

Verizon’s new 5G Labs – to be located in Washington DC, Palo Alto CA, Waltham MA, and Los Angeles CA – will explore the boundaries of 5G technology, co-create new use applications and hardware, and engage with the community through programming designed to encourage local innovators to rethink what’s possible in a 5G world. The Labs will all be open by the end of 2018. Each Lab will be outfitted with live 5G networks, giving local startups, universities, and technology companies the opportunity to develop, test and refine tomorrow’s 5G solutions.

“The future won’t be invented in boardrooms by people using slide presentations,” said Toby Redshaw, Verizon SVP of Strategy, Innovation and Product Development. “Our 5G Labs will be where collaboration and innovation happen. We’re opening access to our 5G network because we believe the next-generation solutions that will ride on it will be the result of collaboration and innovation by an entire ecosystem of developers.”

"5G is the technology of the future, and our partnership with Verizon allows for emerging startups to leverage it as they build the next generation of products that will shape our world,” says CEO of Alley, Jason Saltzman. “We’ve created the first-ever brand of community workspaces in the United States with access to 5G, and the openings in Palo Alto and Los Angeles will enable more entrepreneurs and industries to benefit from what 5G can help them build. It’s the embodiment of our mission to bridge the gap between bring corporate innovation and the local startup ecosystems.”

Local partnerships to accelerate the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Each 5G Lab will have a live 5G network and will offer access to dedicated space and resources to select participants who are looking to explore test cases that will benefit from 5G’s high speeds, massive bandwidth and ultra-low latency.

Each Verizon 5G Lab location will concentrate on industries and technologies that draw from local expertise:

• New York City – media and financial technology
• Waltham, MA – robotics, healthcare and real-time enterprise solutions
• Palo Alto, CA – emerging technology, education and big data
• Washington, DC – public safety and first responders, cyber security and hospitality
• Los Angeles, CA – immersive experiences such as augmented reality and holograms

The new locations will replicate the success of the company’s first 5G lab at the Alley location in New York City. Opened in December 2017, that location has already helped several technology and academic partners develop and prove-out a number of innovative 5G solutions including immersive education, remote healthcare, cloud gaming, and mixed reality solutions for enterprises.

Verizon recently announced it will be first to launch 5G residential broadband service in four markets in the U.S. – Los Angeles, Sacramento, Houston and Indianapolis – in the second half of 2018, followed by a mobile 5G solution in early 2019.