Verizon starts construction on Waltham expansion

Verizon Communications Inc. said it has broken ground on its Technology Innovation Center in Waltham, Mass., that is to be central to the company’s ongoing deployment of LTE technology.
The center, which Verizon EVP and CTO Dick Lynch first mentioned during the 2009 Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain, will be home to both wireless and wireline initiatives for the company. The new 60,000 square-foot facility will join the company’s current 136,000 square-foot Technology Campus in the area and is expected to employ more than 300 people when completed next year.
Verizon noted that specific work at the site will include planning for the continued integration of the company’s wireline and wireless networks, providing a home base for LTE development, support for third party application development and testing to ensure interoperability with international partners.
Verizon said it selected Waltham for the new center as a number of its partners are already in the area, including Airvana Inc., Starent Networks L.L.C., Camiant Inc., Acme Packet, NetNumber and Sonus Networks Inc. Verizon is also current trialing LTE services in nearby Boston ahead of its planned launch of services covering 100 million potential customers by the end of this year.