Verizon launches 5G Ultra Wideband Innovation Hub with the University of South Carolina; Spectrum Update
Verizon and the University of South Carolina are exploring how 5G Ultra Wideband (mmWave) can transform industries including manufacturing, healthcare and civil infrastructure, among others. To do this, Verizon and the university launched the Innovation Experience Hub, powered by Verizon 5G housed in the McNair Center in Columbia, SC where students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and corporate partners can collaborate to test and create new solutions powered by Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, which is available in select areas.
Innovators at the hub will leverage 5G connectivity and solutions to help improve manufacturing processes with quality sensing and defect detection. In healthcare, they’ll test how 5G can enhance emergency response by enabling remote health monitoring and real-time analysis of patient vitals, as well as hospital connected asset management, to streamline asset retrieval and dispatch operations. When it comes to civil infrastructure, researchers will examine how 5G communications can enhance monitoring of roads and bridges with condition analytics and reporting, as well as drone-based visual inspection of roads, bridges and buildings, using AI-driven computer vision.
- Verizon brings 5G Ultra Wideband service to Innovation Hub at University of South Carolina housed in the McNair Center.
- With Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, innovators can develop and test real-world 5G solutions for use cases such as manufacturing, healthcare and civil infrastructure.
- Initial projects will include manufacturing quality inspection and defect detection, healthcare connected asset management, and drone-based visual inspection of roads and bridges.
“Working with the University of South Carolina, we have a great opportunity to collaborate with dozens of partners to ideate and develop new 5G-powered solutions leveraging the latest technologies, including large-scale IoT, artificial intelligence, computer vision and augmented reality,” said Jennifer Artley, Verizon Business Senior Vice President of 5G Acceleration. “Verizon is the network America relies on. Giving researchers access to Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, with its high bandwidth and low latency, can accelerate the innovation process, leading to new solutions that will transform how enterprises operate and grow.”
“Our relationship with Verizon exemplifies the benefits of partnerships between the University of South Carolina and the business community,” university president Michael Amiridis said. “This aligns with our focus on expanding research opportunities that solve problems and accelerate discoveries.”
This engagement is part of Verizon’s broader strategy to partner with enterprises, startups, universities, national labs and government/military organizations, to explore how 5G can disrupt and transform nearly every industry. Verizon operates several 5G Labs in the U.S. that specialize in developing use cases in industries ranging from healthcare to public safety to entertainment. In addition, Verizon is collaborating with various customers to establish 5G Innovation Hubs on-premises as part of an ongoing initiative to co-innovate and create new 5G applications.
Regarding Verizon’s wireless spectrum deployments, CEO Hans Vestberg told a Goldman Sachs Investor Conference last week:
“We have US 150 million POPs (Points of Presence) with the C-band and just reminder to all, we started in the first quarter deploying the C-band. That’s the pace we have right now and we have said that we’re going to pass plus or more than 175 million POPs by year end.
So this is going faster, but as you rightfully said, we’re using — we have 161 megahertz nationwide. We’re so far using 60 megahertz. We’re getting into 100 megahertz. We’ve talked a little bit about some market have 200 megahertz. So we have so much way to go here and improving the network. And what we see so far is of course, where we launch a C-band, we have a much higher step up ratio in those markets, which is a good indicator of that the C-band is really making difference.”
References:
https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-launches-5g-innovation-hub-university-south-carolina