Verizon said it’s more cautious on deployment of mobile 5G services than rivals coming out of MWC, though does expect technology to be a game changer.
Verizon Communications is seen by many in a leadership position in terms of the move towards deploying “5G” network technology, with the carrier this week reaffirming plans for commercial deployments beginning next year.
Speaking at Deutsche Bank’s Annual Media and Telecom Conference, Verizon EVP and President of Operations John Stratton said the carrier’s current move towards fixed wireless commercial trials in 11 markets will include both consumers and enterprise customers, which will lay the ground work for actual deployments beginning in 2018.
“Where we are now is we’ve talked a little bit publicly about 11 markets around the U.S. where we are now doing what we call precommercial trials,” Stratton said. “And so we’ll have and are in the process now of engaging live customers, regular standard issue folks, principally consumer but a little bit of business market’s opportunity for them to test and try the service.”
Stratton explained the testing would include “additional vetting of the technology,” including urban and suburban deployments and “different densities” for both buildings and foliage. The 11 markets cited for testing by mid-year include Ann Arbor, Michigan; Atlanta; Bernardsville, New Jersey; Brockton, Massachusetts; Dallas; Denver; Houston; Miami; Sacramento, California; Seattle; and Washington, D.C. The trials are set to use millimeter wave spectrum bands, with a service focus on providing wireless internet access and voice over IP calling.
“There’s all kinds of factors that you now want to see in a real world, elevation in a building, what is the orientation to RF planning that has to be understood in order to see again in a practical real world environment what it looks like,” Stratton said. “So if you look at our list of eleven markets and if you saw in those markets where we are they’re quite diverse.”
Verizon was one of the first domestic operators to announce its 5G network plans, unveiling efforts in late 2015 towards initial trials in 2016. The carrier has since moved on rolling out technical specifications for its vendor partners and is also in a bit of a battle with rival AT&T concerning standards timing.
Verizon has also been aggressive in snapping up assets in support of its 5G plans, including fiber and millimeter wave spectrum assets from XO Communications, which Stratton said the carrier plans to bundle with its other holdings and services to foster unique services.
“The ability for us to leverage the whole of our portfolio to create value is really, really important and 5G is no exception to that,” Stratton said. “What is it that we’re going to deliver, where we deliver it and what services can we create off of it are important. So, I’m going to be a little bit obtuse here in terms of not describing with great precision the exact intended sort of market that we would pursue. But what I would say is that we look in the places where we’re going to have those dense deliveries. What is the addressable market in those spaces would it be consumer business large enterprise and then how is value created through the cost avoidance in my current business for new revenue creation. I’m sorry I can’t be more specific than that.”
As for a mobile component of 5G, Stratton said he felt some of the talk coming out of the recent Mobile World Congress event hinting at availability as early as 2019 was “a bit optimistic.”
“I think what we would more likely see is maybe the end 2019 into 2020, where you might see the first sort of delivery of mobile based 5G,” Stratton said. “And remember also to scale you have to seed the base of handsets and so you’ll have that curve. There’s a cost curve, there’s an initial integration that needs to happen.”
Verizon one-third of the way through virtualization plans
Beyond the testing of what it expects to be part of the 5G standard, the carrier would also work on tapping software integration to support network operating support and business support systems, along with automation.
“How do we work those aspects as well with the goal of being first to market in the U.S. with a meaningful commercial deployment of 5G, which we expect in 2018,” Stratton said.
Digging deeper on its software plans, Stratton said Verizon is “maybe a third of the way through the journey to full stage virtualization of the network, which has significant implications to the cost to provision as we go.”
“The ability for us to leverage things like unlicensed spectrum for example, to do self optimizing networks [with] less touch as the network policy expands to more cells, you have to have the ability to manage it in an automated way,” Stratton explained.
A report last year from Technology Business Research noted Verizon’s virtualization efforts around software-defined networking and network functions virtualization appeared to be targeting its 5G work, with indications the carrier is “looking at aligning NFV/SDN to fulfill 5G requirements and planning to move its wireless network services closer to the edge of the network using NFV.”
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