Verizon and AWS added two more cities – Dallas and Miami — to their 5G Mobile Edge Computing Platform, bringing the total to seven with three more planned by the yearend. Verizon and AWS launched Verizon 5G Edge with AWS Wavelength in August in Boston and the Bay Area and had since expanded footprint to five before this, including Atlanta, Boston, New York City, San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, DC.
By moving AWS compute and storage to the edge of Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network, innovators can develop new latency-sensitive applications that can transform industries ranging from healthcare to transportation. 5G Edge enables the data and processing done by the applications to move closer to the end-user, thus shortening the travel distance for the data, which in turn reduces lag time, or latency, and ultimately helps critical, performance-impacting applications to respond more quickly and efficiently. AWS Wavelength brings AWS compute and storage services to the edge of Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network, allowing innovators to develop applications with increased speeds, massive bandwidth and ultra-low latency.
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“We’re already seeing today how customers are leveraging the powerful combination of Verizon 5G Edge and AWS Wavelength to create next-generation use case in industries ranging from transportation to healthcare,” said Tami Erwin, CEO of Verizon Business. “While we’re still in the early days of 5G, it’s astounding to witness the development of experiences that were not feasible before the advent of 5G and mobile edge computing.”
Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network enables throughput at least 25 times faster than existing 4G networks, while delivering very low latency and high bandwidth. Eventually, it is expected to enable transfer of data volumes a 100 times over than 4G and connect more than 1 million devices per sq km. The service is so far available in parts of 55 cities in the United States, while Verizon 5G Nationwide is available to more than 200 million people in more than 1,800 cities in the country.
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5G rollout and geospatial
The COVID-19 pandemic has somewhat dampened the excitement around the launch of 5G services. Yet, as the world realized quickly, there never has been a more opportune time for a telecom revolution. Good connectivity is not only critical in strengthening the fight against the virus – digital contact tracing, tele-health visits, pop-up hospitals, and testing centers – but also the rise in remote work and digital communications owing to the pandemic highlights the urgent need for more vigorous 5G adoption worldwide.
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And that’s good news for the geospatial industry since in no industry is location more important than one that is inherently mobile. Location intelligence is more critical to 5G than any other previous generation mobile network technology. 5G’s higher frequency has very short range that can be impacted by smallest of the obstructions – the palm of your hand, or even a raindrop!
This makes deployment modeling even more important as operators are forced to densify networks. This includes estimating coverage, comparing with 4G macro cell deployments, studying subscriber mobility data, and real-world field testing. Location technologies play a key role in all of these — from a data analysis and modeling perspective, integrated solutions, to field testing and deployment.
