Verizon conduct trials with Amazon Kuiper for private 5G

NEW DELHI: The US-based telecom carrier Verizon is conducting trials to demonstrate use cases following an ambitious partnership with Amazon Kuiper, a low-orbit satellite constellation, to deliver value-added services such as Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity to its enterprise customers as well as captive 5G networks.

"We have tied up with the Amazon Kuiper. We are starting to test whether in 2022-23, it will be available. I think it is relevant for 5G as a private," Sampath Sowmyanarayan, chief revenue officer at Verizon Business told ET, adding that Amazon's services would be used to deliver backhaul for 5G, connectivity for enterprises, and global IoT services.

Early this week, Sampath was elevated as a Verizon Business chief executive effective July 1, succeeding Tami Erwin, and would report to Hans Vestberg, Verizon chairman and global chief executive.

Further, the executive said that with Amazon Kuiper, the telco would be able to combine 5G terrestrial network and a LEO system, and would be able to deliver Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities to worldwide customers using satellite constellations that could be one of the attractive offerings.

In October last year, Verizon partnered with Amazon's project Kuiper that has an outlay of $10 billion, and aims to launch as many as 3,236 low earth orbit satellites to serve businesses, and penetrate Internet in hard-to-serve locations.

Verizon also said that it would support both telecom carriers and enterprises where they own spectrum, to quickly deploy 5G private networks to achieve cost efficiency and accelerate productivity.

"We have built private networks for other companies. Now if someone (enterprises) else is going to come, then we have to compete on quality," the top executive said, adding that telecom operators have some advantages, and understand network deployments better.

"In the short term, it looks like that it may be competitive, and create tension for carriers but in the medium-to-long run, it's good for society and adds more innovation to the market," he said.

In India, there is a raging battle between telecom service operators and a few technology providers, both vying to deploy 5G private networks for enterprise customers.

The CEO-designate further said that the telecom major would soon build a 5G-centric lab in Asia soon to demonstrate next-generation technology-backed capabilities and its expertise as it has become the first carrier worldwide to launch 5G.

Verizon already operates five labs in the US, and one in London, and allows enterprises to conduct experiments using third-party technologies.

"We opened it (5G) much earlier than the others, so we took some risks to deploy 5G. There are some consumer benefits of 5G but a big advantage is a pure hunger from the business to business (B2B) side. For us, there are a few big use cases of 5G," Sampath said.

Verizon Business believes that 5G would bring the next wave of growth, and on the back of next generation networks, is eying to grow at least 4 percent of the top line. "Now, for a $133 billion company, the 4 per cent is that it has to grow almost $5-6 billion a year. Most of our growth is going to come from 5G."

"India is an important country for us. We operate a lot of centres out of India. Lot of our systems, technology and product development work happens in India," Sampath said, adding that the key driver for its presence in the country is pure talent. "The talent we see in India is second to none, and which is why it's very easy for us to operate in India."

Verizon has offices in Bengaluru, Chenani and Hyderabad with a total employee base of nearly 8,000 individuals in India.