‘The honor is all mine.’

On today’s Up To Speed Live, host Andy Choi was joined by special guest Verizon Public Sector leader Jennifer Chronis. Before their conversation, Andy shared the following updates.

Up To Speed Week In Review

Monday: Count ‘em up folks - we had one, two, three Up To Speed hosts live on Monday highlighting some very important causes for the month of May. Diana shared events around mental health awareness, Raquel previewed details about Global Accessibility Awareness Day, and Andy highlighted big moments during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month.

Tuesday: We were back in our stores as our V Team reps helped introduce us to all of the great accessories we carry, including Air Tags, mobile game controllers and home protection smart devices. By the way, Hans continues his tour of stores around the country. He just might be coming to yours soon!

Thursday: We dabbled in real estate as Andy tried to convince Jess Bonardi to sell her home, only to find that she is one of the many homeowners who prioritize fast and reliable internet service. By the way, her friendly neighbor knew a lot about our new Fios offer. Nice guy. Very persistent.

Sling TV deal

Speaking of new offers, Verizon is making it easy for customers to discover a new way to watch TV. Starting this week, new and existing Verizon customers with a Verizon wireless, Fios or 5G Home account can get two months of SLING TV on us!

More 5G NBA arenas

From the home court to the hardwood, some slam dunk news to bring immersive applications like Shot Tracker closer to basketball fans — 14 additional arenas are now equipped with 5G Ultra Wideband. Verizon is the exclusive 5G partner of 15 NBA teams that play at these venues.

ShotTracker, a Verizon Ventures portfolio company, is currently testing its capabilities at the Verizon 5G Performance Center, the practice facility for the Phoenix Suns. With this technology, teams and broadcasters have the potential to use this data to automate the tracking of player shot selection, ball movement and player efficiency to provide near real-time, in-game analysis.

AR innovation for the NHL

Let’s not forget the ice, though. Verizon is the official 5G partner of the NHL, and we’re now testing how 5G Ultra Wideband can give fans real-time player stats when they point their 5G phone at the rink.

One of our teams recently tested an AR fan experience that leverages 5G Edge, a mobile edge computing platform, at a Devils game at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. With immersiv.io’s AR application, ARISE, testers were able to point their 5G device at any player on the ice and see real-time stats overlaid in AR, such as player speed, time on ice, historical stats and more.

By the way, our very own Hans Vestberg was spotted enjoying blazingly fast 5G speeds at a recent Avalanche game in Denver, CO.

New Skyward functionality

Skyward, our drone management company, announced its platform will now offer drone mapping and modeling powered by Pix4D. This means customers will be able to produce 2D maps and 3D images as Skyward moves one step closer to a seamless, end-to-end enterprise solution.

iPad Pro now available

One great way to control a drone is with an iPad, especially a 5G iPad Pro, the fastest iPad in the world, now available in our stores.

Helping the Big Apple

Andy shared a video detailing how our Public Sector team has provided connectivity at vaccination sites in New York City, including a very popular site in the heart of Times Square. Overall, we’ve partnered with the City of New York, helping government agencies as they’ve supported their citizens in a work-from-home environment and schools as they’ve implemented remote learning. As the situation continued to evolve, our team helped agencies stand up quarantine and testing centers.

Special thanks to Michael Caralis, Northeast Director of Public Sector Sales; Lisa Sirabella, Lead Specialist; Client Services Management, Government & Education; Bruno Pagano, Field Technician; and the entire team for this important work.

Sneak peek at our latest ad

Speaking of our 5G network, our “Reliable Performance” ad campaign continues. Andy shared a special preview of the new spot featuring the incredible engineering behind our 5G Ultra Wideband network. You’ll be able to see the entire ad on a screen near you this weekend.

Military Appreciation month

Speaking of May, this is the month we salute all those who have served and continue to serve in our U.S. armed forces. Did you know that more than 10,000 V Team veterans fill our ranks and contribute their special skills, discipline, and experience across the entire business? From recruiting, supporting and developing military talent to offering military leave benefits that surpass federal requirements, we empower our V Team vets to have successful careers after service, and we are so proud to do so.

Getting to know Jennifer Chronis

Speaking of our military veterans, Andy got to know our new Public Sector leader Jennifer Chronis. Jennifer joined the V Team less than a year ago when she came over from Amazon Web Services where she led their Department of Defense work. She previously held multiple leadership roles at IBM and spent 20 years in the Army, including active and reserve duty, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Jennifer says she is honored to work with such a strong team. She will focus on serving our current customers while continuing to push growth. She will be looking to build out the world-class team, including the Verizon Frontline brand which helps our public safety customers.

“Our customers are so in need of innovation,” said Jennifer. “That’s what we do really well. I’m really excited about how our team can help by going more deeply into their digital transformation.”

Supporting military spouses

If you haven’t yet, make sure you check out the Inside Verizon article about Military Spouses. We feature the stories of some remarkable military spouses on our V Team. Military Spouse Appreciation Day was May 8, but we don’t necessarily need a specific day to commemorate our military spouses. They receive our gratitude every day through special programs and through policies that provide flexibility and job security as they move frequently due to military deployments. We’d like to give a big shoutout to our military families.

Show your support

Continue sharing your appreciation for our military. Show your family and friends who have served your appreciation by posting a photo. We’d love for you to wear V Team gear, tag them, use the hashtag #Thanks2Vets, and we’re looking forward to seeing them posted all over social media.

Brand shop

Andy was sporting his V Team military-themed gear again today. You can get yours on our new Verizon Brand Shop. Lots of other great V Team merchandise there as well.

Drone-tastic sign off

Technician Derek DuPrez shared a wonderful sign-off from Austin, TX, where he sent his drone aloft to automatically track him as he scooted around town on his one wheel skateboard, giving us some gorgeous shots of the city. Thanks, Derek!

If you have any questions, email them to live@verizon.com.

Click here for a transcript of the webcast.

Get the latest information on our Coronavirus Resource Page (Inside Verizon, The Street).

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