Ericsson Delivers 5G Base Station to Verizon from Texas Smart Factory

According to a recent release, Verizon is the first recipient of a U.S. manufactured commercial 5G base station from Ericsson’s new state-of-the-art smart factory in Texas. Ericsson says the equipment is the first 5G base station it has produced in the U.S.

“Ericsson’s smart factory is a cornerstone of our collaboration as we work together to bring 5G to our consumer, enterprise and public safety customers,” said Kyle Malady, CTO, Verizon. “Together these types of innovation will accelerate our 5G deployments, as we expand our 5G leadership in technology and continue to rapidly build the ecosystem with our partners.”

The 5G base station delivered to Verizon is the millimeter-wave Street Macro solution, which is key to Ericsson’s 5G portfolio for its North American customers. All radio access components are housed in one lightweight enclosure, allowing for the rapid growth of 5G coverage in complex city environments.

Fredrik Jejdling, EVP and Head of Networks, Ericsson, said, “As the most advanced platform for innovation, 5G will enable a transformation across enterprises –as we’re now experiencing in our own smart factories. Automation and remote operations have become more important, and we’re working with our customers to make them available for the benefit of industries. From producing the first 5G base stations at our 5G USA Smart Factory earlier this year, we’ve made our first commercial delivery to Verizon. That’s just the beginning.”

The 300,000 sq. ft. factory began commercial operations in March and the company said it will be fully operational by the end of the year. It produces 5G and Advanced Antenna System radios to boost network capacity, and the facility itself is outfitted with fast and secure 5G connectivity to enable agile operations and flexible production.

Ericsson is heavily invested in 5G development, infrastructure and deployment. The company believes that 5G’s reported low latency, speed and high bandwidth will help to create the factory of the future, and to enhance machine learning, augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) applications. All of this may be true, but it will be interesting to see how Ericsson and other 5G evangelist companies intend to address the challenges of 5G, especially the poor wall penetration and the infrastructure costs of required heavy fiberoptic drops.

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