The design will offer military leaders high-speed, bandwidth and low latency and scope to explore how enhanced wireless coverage can increase operational efficiencies.
“Verizon Public Sector is proud of its partnership with the U.S. Armed Forces and excited about the digital transformation work already underway in a selected test area at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam,” said Maggie Hallbach, senior vice president for Public Sector at Verizon.
“The private 5G network we’re constructing in an aircraft maintenance hangar at JBPHH is just the latest example of how we're helping the U.S. Department of Defense deliver innovative, mission-critical capabilities across a range of military operations through advanced network and communications solutions."
Ericsson will partner Verizon to construct the network, bringing its private 5G solution which offers core and radio access network to the test site.
Graham Osborne, vice president and head of customer unit, Ericsson North America said: "We're continuing to push technological advancements with our long-standing partner Verizon to deliver on their 5G ambitions, and today’s announcement demonstrates our commitment to exploring the vast applications and opportunities that can be built upon next-generation.”
As part of the pilot network design, which includes a hangar and other nearby areas, a limited number of aircraft maintenance personnel will explore new ways to implement Foreign Object Detection (FOD), other airplane maintenance applications and user equipment (UE) devices to see how they perform on a private network.
Early testing will determine how the military can apply this design and the corresponding outcomes to other bases.
