02/28/2018|Verizon News Archives
Day 3 at Mobile World Congress—Ed Chan: exciting to see our 5G vision coming to fruition for our customers
This is the third in a series of posts from Verizon Network leaders at Mobile World Congress. You can see Nicki Palmer’s story here.
Full Transparency
Our editorial transparency tool uses blockchain technology to permanently log all changes made to official releases after publication. However, this post is not an official release and therefore not tracked. Visit our learn more for more information.
More of our content is being permanently logged via blockchain technology starting [10.23.2020].
By Ed Chan, SVP and Chief Technology Architect, Verizon
We just completed our third full day of Mobile World Congress 2018 – and the activity level at the show is as high as ever.
We’ve been hosting meetings all day, each day, at our meeting rooms in the MWC18 South Village, to sit down face to face with our most important partners to discuss the opportunities and challenges in front of us. And with all the latest technologies on display and an extensive calendar of talks, roundtables, panels and presentations on the agenda, everyone is very excited to talk about how we can work together to make it all real.
I’ve been meeting with vendors and customers to discuss our shared goals, speaking with members of the media to share Verizon’s vision and strategy for bringing our next-generation network to market, and walking the exhibit floor to get a direct view of how the future of the wireless industry is being positioned.
Some of the things that caught my eye were the technology demonstrations. Compared to two years ago, many of those demos have matured and evolved from concepts to actual prototypes. And the volume of those demos has increased too. I saw many more examples of technologies like augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, precision remote robotics, and other technologies than in previous years. All those technologies will ultimately benefit from 5G’s super-fast speeds and ultra-low latency, and developers are rapidly refining them and getting them ready to bring to market.
Industry Leadership
It was clear to me – even before I arrived in Barcelona – that Verizon’s decision to establish our own pre-commercial 5G standard truly helped drive the industry to where it is today. How so?
- seeing how rapidly we and our partners have been able to successfully conduct pre-commercial 5G trials in the lab and in the field
- our partners have been very eager to work with us on our 5G deployment
- and how the 3GPP was able to establish the 5G NR standard by the end of 2017 – two to three years ahead of most people’s expectations
Seeing the future of 5G and the rest of the wireless industry laid out before you on the exhibit floor, you can’t help but be excited about what we’ll be able to bring to our customers starting later this year.
Mobile World Congress continues through Thursday – tomorrow you’ll hear from my colleague Toby Redshaw and his perspective on what he’s seen this week.
For related media inquiries, please contact story.inquiry@one.verizon.com
