Verizon LTE Innovation Center Ignites 4G

A catalyst for innovation and ideas

Sometimes all it takes is the tiniest spark to ignite the flame of exciting new ideas and innovations. That’s what we’re doing at Verizon’s LTE Innovation Center which opened officially in July. We’re bringing together a diverse ecosystem — from large infrastructure vendors, such as Alcatel-Lucent, to small startups and other companies in between — to debate issues, create next-generation devices and generate new ideas that harness the power and potential of our 4G LTE network.

When Verizon first envisioned the LTE Innovation Center, we imagined a place where customers, suppliers, partners and entrepreneurs could collaborate and work directly with 4G LTE technology in a live 4G LTE network environment. Today, we have just that place. And we’re seeing what’s possible when some of the most creative minds imaginable team up to innovate with 4G LTE technology.

Collaboration benefits all

4G LTE is a brand new game. No one knows yet the potential it has to change the way we live and communicate. And none of us alone, whether we’re a service provider, an infrastructure vendor or a consumer electronics company, has all the expertise needed to realize the full potential of 4G LTE. We have to work together.

Think of the LTE Innovation Center as a sandbox that helps our ecosystem partners transform their ideas from slides and initial thinking into real solutions that can be taken to market. They can work side-by-side with Verizon engineers, using the same equipment that’s running on our commercial network to develop, prototype and test solutions faster than they could on their own. In many cases, they can build something exciting and new that’s only possible because people with different areas of expertise are working together.

Because we believe so strongly in collaboration, we take an open approach to intellectual property – companies keep what they bring into the process — and there’s no charge to access any of our systems. Ecosystem partners also have access to business development experts to help with commercialization plans. Our expectation is that some of the products and solutions developed at the LTE Innovation Center will end up on the Verizon 4G LTE network providing value to Verizon customers. But it’s a “no strings attached” arrangement so that might not always be the case.

Showcasing the potential of 4G LTE

The LTE Innovation Center is unique because it combines a lab environment and an Experience Center where Verizon customers and other technology companies can see demonstrations of the latest 4G LTE innovations. The Innovation Center:

• Is staffed by the experts who built the products and solutions. That means we can go well beyond the thin layer of what the demonstrations show to engage people in more meaningful, deeper and productive conversations about what’s possible with 4G LTE. As we build new products and solutions in the lab, we add them to the Experience Center to stimulate new conversations and new ideas.
• Provides a very realistic view of the advanced features and functionality that are coming to our 4G LTE network. These may be new capabilities that no one has seen before. Or, they may be capabilities that build on Verizon expertise, such as solutions for the telematics and automotive industries. We emphasize growing trends such as broadcasting TV to mobile devices and cloud-based multiplayer gaming. We also demonstrate how 4G LTE can be used to bring robust connections to rural communities and to create smarter, connected homes.
• Allows our engineers to tailor demonstrations to the specific needs and interests of our visitors. We work through their specific challenges — whether they are a hospital, a gaming company or a utility building a smart grid — then demonstrate potential solutions to those challenges using devices embedded with 4G LTE. With this approach, we can take people many, many steps beyond the typical presentation-only approach when discussing how they can use 4G LTE to address their challenges.

Ecosystem innovations at work

Even before we launched the Verizon 4G LTE network in December 2010, our ecosystem partners had access to a network that replicated our planned commercial network, allowing us and our partners to start working on new ideas. In particular, smaller companies that have a lot of expertise in their own technology, but don’t necessarily have wireless expertise, have been able to add 4G LTE technology to their products.

Here are just a few examples among the more than 30 products that have already been developed and demonstrated at the LTE Innovation Center:

• LiveEdge and Nomad Innovations developed LiveEdge TV, the first embedded 4G LTE wireless solution for transmitting live, high-definition coverage of events for broadcast, cable or the Web. The 1.5-lb device attaches to video cameras so events can be covered in real time without expensive microwave, satellite or production units.
• TouchTunes Interactive Networks uses the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE mobile broadband network in its fleet of Digital Jukeboxes across the United States. Last fall, TouchTunes released its myTouchTunes Mobile app allowing consumers to browse and search for music, access their personal playlists, play music from the jukebox, automatically post their plays to Facebook^®, Twitter™ and more.
• VGo Communications has been working with the LTE Innovation Center to add the convenience of 4G LTE to its robotic telepresence product line. VGo allows an individual to see, hear, interact and independently move around in any remote site — enabling anyone to be anywhere. The company’s technology is already helping a young boy in Texas with a compromised immune system attend classes at his high school as if he were there in person.

Looking beyond today

Through the LTE Innovation Center, we’re telling people that Verizon is committed to fostering openness and innovation on our 4G LTE network. That’s why we’ve dedicated our engineers, real estate, time, services and infrastructure to help build great products now and in the future. We want to see what’s possible with 4G LTE, and what it means to take this technology beyond smartphones and tablets to vehicles, robotics and even into the cloud.

Longer term, Verizon’s Innovation Center will showcase technologies beyond 4G LTE. It could include LTE-Advanced. It could also include new capabilities related to cloud services from Verizon Business or high-speed Internet services from Verizon FiOS. Our goal is for the Verizon Innovation Center to become the “go to” facility for the brightest ideas and the best products in the communications space.

We don’t expect to resolve all of today’s challenges at the LTE Innovation Center. But we do expect to solve some of them. And we can help to generate the spark that fuels innovations we can’t even dream of today.