Cellcom and Ericsson hosted 5G demonstration in Green Bay
Green Bay, WI – On October 12th, 2018, Wisconsin-based wireless carrier Cellcom, partnered with Ericsson, a global technology leader, to host a 5G demonstration in Green Bay, Wis. at T2 Accelerator. The event brought together legislators, city and county officials, technology leaders and local businesses to get an interactive demonstration of what the next generation of wireless technology will mean to communities, industries and consumers in the state. The demonstration included a live demonstration of 5G over Cellcom’s network.
“5G is a transformational technology and we are at the very first steps of what will be years of evolution. 5G will not only connect people through personal devices, but also connect machines and objects. It is expected to improve network performance and efficiency to connect everything from industries to utilities. It’s a technology that will make smart cities, autonomous cars, remote health care and large-scale automation a reality,” said Mark Naze, CEO of Cellcom. “We are building the path to 5G now, deploying 5G-ready radios and installing fiber to carry the increased data traffic.”
Previous generations of mobile networks brought consumers voice and text messages in 2G, web browsing in 3G, and higher-speed data and video streaming in 4G. The transition from 4G to 5G will not only serve consumers but also bring opportunity for innovation.
Ericsson has been working with 5G technology for several years in labs and field trials, while providing key contributions to the 5G standardization process. Cellcom was excited to partner with Ericsson and bring this demonstration to Green Bay and to show their commitment to the path to 5G. The event included a look at not only the high-speed that 5G will offer, but the low latency and high capacity 5G networks will bring.
“Wide-spread deployment of 5G is still several years away, but we are spending time listening to the dreams and goals of cities, counties and businesses to learn how they want to build automation and sensor technology into their corners of the world. Cellcom will provide wireless infrastructure to connect and power these initiatives. We want to enable the next generation of growth and innovation right here in Wisconsin,” said Brighid Riordan, chief innovation officer (CINO) and vice president of public affairs for Cellcom.
“Most of the technologies that drive faster speed in 5G will improve 4G LTE as well. 4G is not going away and will continue to be a critical part of wireless technology in tandem with future 5G components of networks. As a carrier serving a largely rural area, our focus will continue to be to build our network in a customized way that makes sense for where our customers live, work and play,” said Naze.