Collaboration Seen as Key as Verizon Works on LTE Equipment, Apps
Verizon Wireless, which opened its LTE Innovation Center in Waltham, Mass., Tuesday, is partnering with companies of all sizes to help create devices and solutions for LTE networks, executives said during a webcast. A sister Application Innovation Center will be opened next month in San Francisco, said David Small, chief technical officer.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The Innovation Center is all about collaboration and bringing companies and ideas together, said Small, and nearly 80 companies are already participating. The Waltham facility will focus on LTE products like smartphones, tablets and applications for consumers and enterprises, he said. Verizon is committed to M2M communications, said Dan Mead, Verizon Wireless CEO. He envisioned connected home systems where LTE connects utilities, and distance learning networks and telehealth systems. Additionally, “LTE can change what we do with our cars.” The concept behind the two facilities is: “What would you do if you could connect wirelessly to anything you use or any utility that you have,” he said. “No one has a monopoly on good ideas. … We intend to encourage all new ideas.” The Waltham center will house over 300 engineers. A small-scale Verizon LTE network was built in the center to test products before commercial network launch, executives said.
Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson are founding participants and Cisco and Samsung Mobile are “premier” participants. Work at the center will be integrated with Alcatel-Lucent’s Next Generation Connect program, which seeks to bring broadband to phones, cars, multimedia platforms and more, said Ken Wirth, president of End-to-End Network Solutions. Small- and medium-sized companies are on board too. Telepresence company VGo has been working with the innovation center to provide LTE to its telepresence product line, founder Tim Root said. LTE allows VGo’s telepresence robots to benefit from a wider operational range, no longer relying on established Wi-Fi networks, he said. That would enable deployment to a larger variety of businesses and locations while simplifying connectivity and setup considerations, he said.
Additionally, LiveEdge, a wireless newsgathering service provider, is the first embedded LTE wireless solution for the transmission of live coverage of news, sports and other events, CEO Robert Klingle said. The start-up will have its products commercially available later this year, he said. Enabled by LTE, the products that offer two-way audio/video/data connection between personnel in the field and a studio or command center, would allow live events to be covered without deploying expensive microwave, satellite or production units, he said. Verizon’s LTE network is live in 77 markets now and the carrier plans to reach 175 markets by year-end.
Meanwhile, two AT&T LTE devices will be available later this summer, AT&T said Tuesday. The USB Connect Momentum 4G modem is $49.99 with a two-year contract after a $50 mail-in rebate while the Mobile Hotspot Elevate 4G is $69.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate. The hotspot includes a display for information such as signal strength and data usage and connects up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices to the network. Both devices offer global connectivity with data roaming in some 200 countries.