Verizon officials highlight role of 5G tech for responders during IWCE keynote

LAS VEGAS—As the public-safety sector continues to expand its use of data-intensive applications, developments in 5G can provide the low-latency, high-bandwidth connectivity to meet these needs, Verizon officials said yesterday during a keynote address at IWCE 2023.

Bryan Schromsky, managing partner for Verizon’s public-sector unit, noted that the carrier plans to complete its deployment of C-band spectrum by the end of the year, which will mean that Verizon customers will have access to at least 160 MHz of the mid-band airwaves that support 5G Ultrawideband.

Verizon has virtualized many of its network functions, which provides the carrier with greater flexibility, and 5G devices are becoming more commonplace as pandemic-induced supply-chain issues subside, Schromsky. In addition, Verizon plans to begin implementing network slicing, which is one of the key features promised by 5G at the end of this year, he said.

“At the end of this year, we are starting to deploy network slicing,” Schromsky said. “The ability to add dynamic policies [that allow users] to subscribe low latency and more bandwidth is a game-changer.”

When all of these factors are considered, and the prospects for 5G are promising, according to Schromsky.

“It’s exciting at this time,” he said. “I do believe that this is where you really start seeing 5G take off—the networks are there, and the devices are there.

“Never before have you seen this, where you’re going to have a cloud environment interact with a radio access network, and it will be seamless—that has never happened in the history of cellular communications. It is a game-changer—not just for us but for the whole industry. And the industry having competition is only going to drive that innovation faster, which is very exciting.”

Cory Davis, Verizon’s assistant vice president for Verizon Frontline, said Verizon customers will not be limited to accessing 5G Ultrawideband only in dense population centers, as the carrier continues to build out 5G capability throughout the U.S., including in rural locations.

“We are going to have 5G Ultrawideband on nearly every single site that we have 4G today, so this is going to cover the entire country,” Davis said.

In addition to developing new system capabilities, Verizon works to ensure that the network remains available as much as possible, even under trying circumstances, Davis said.

“Verizon, over the last 20 years, has invested over $175 billion to harden networks,” Davis said. “Reliability and redundancy is paramount and core to everything we do here at Verizon Frontline.”

Davis outlined some of the hardening measure employed by Verizon, such as identifying and utilizing diverse fiber-transport routes and providing backup power at macro cell sites. Battery backup power is available at 100% of Verizon’s macro sites, and backup generator power has been implemented at 80% of Verizon’s macro sites—a figure that reaches 95% in the Gulf Coast region, he said.

Supplementing this terrestrial network coverage is the Verizon Frontline Crisis Response Team, which was deployed almost 700 times last year in support of public-safety agencies responding to various emergencies, according to Patty Roze, Verizon’s vice president of public-sector sales, who served as moderator during the keynote session.

Davis said Verizon Frontline’s almost 600 deployable assets allow the carrier to provide broadband coverage “where public safety needs them and when they need them most.”

And broadband communications increasingly has become a vital component of emergency-response operations, Davis said.

“What we’re hearing is that everybody’s using more data,” Davis said. “It’s less about picking up a phone to call somebody. It’s less about sending a text message or a photo. It’s really lots and lots of massive data. There’s a huge appetite for video. There’s a huge appetite for real-time response, real-time communication and situational awareness.”

“Last year, we visited some fire base camps and, among the incident commanders, a repeated theme was, ‘We’re using more data. We need more capacity. We need more speed. Everything is going to the cloud. The days of 30 [mbps] down and 10 up are just not cutting it anymore.”