Verizon announced they would be opening a 5G Innovation Hub in Lake Nona, FL in the Orlando area. The carrier is calling it a “living lab” smart community that will provide an opportunity to test 5G use cases for connected healthcare, autonomous mobility, smart communities, education, retail and others. Lake Nona is a planned community that is home to thousands of “citizen scientists,” students, visitors, various national headquarters and healthcare facilities. The community was designed to focus on providing an ideal landscape to create new and innovative experiences across a multitude of industries.
With Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network on site, innovators will be able to test how Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband’s speeds, bandwidth and latency can enhance applications for industries prevalent in Lake Nona such as connected healthcare and technology, autonomous mobility, smart communities, health and wellness, education, retail and sports.
One of the 5G trials already underway at Lake Nona involves testing Cellular Vehicle-To-Everything (C-V2X) technology with Beep, an Autonomous Mobility-as-a-Service provider. The initial pilot will examine how C-V2X can improve the safety of Beep’s autonomous shuttles, which currently operate on several routes throughout the community. The C-V2X pilot involves Verizon’s 4G LTE and 5G Ultra Wideband networks, Multi-Access Edge Compute (MEC), Real Time Kinematics (RTK), and Computer Vision.
“5G is paving the way for unprecedented innovations that will reshape the world and have a massive impact on how we live, work, and play,” said Sampath Sowmyanarayan, SVP and President of Enterprise at Verizon. “We’re creating Innovation Hubs powered by Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband to serve as launch pads for high-impact, transformational experiences and are excited to see the new 5G use cases that will be developed in Lake Nona.”
The new Innovation Hub will also showcase existing 5G use cases for visitors to experience and includes an Executive Briefing Center that will provide prospects and customers with access to Verizon leadership and subject matter experts. Verizon started deploying its 5G Ultra Wideband network in Lake Nona earlier this year.
Reader Interactions