TPG Telecom has opened its first Innovation Lab at Glebe in Sydney to work network virtualisation and 5G applications. The new facility is said to provide a single integrated site for vendors to trial their emerging 5G related technologies.
TPG Telecom executive general manager mobile and fixed networks Barry Kezik said the new lab comprises an on-site data centre and rooftop mobile site, allowing vendors to partner with TPG Telecom to accelerate the adoption of solutions including vRAN, mobile edge computing, mobile private networks and Open RAN.
“This is an incredibly exciting new initiative that will allow us to explore end to end cloud native 5G infrastructure and unleash the full potential of 5G in driving industry digitisation and automation,” Kezik said in a statement.
“Not only will this allow us to evaluate innovations in 5G network infrastructure to deliver better customer experience with lower cost, the real potential here is to unlock 5G’s high throughput and ultralow latency capabilities for industry verticals. We are talking about utilising augmented reality and virtual reality for smart training, low latency remote control for mining and transportation, and smart city applications in collaboration with artificial intelligence and machine learning,” he added.
The lab is said to enable TPG Telecom to benchmark and understand the potential return on investment of different vendor radio technology through on-site trials. “Having the ability to partner and trial different radio technology with different vendors within the Innovation Lab allows for greater ease in benchmarking performance,” Mr Kezik said.
TPG has named Samsung as the first lab user and it had also recently announced its partnership to work on 5G end-to-end solutions.
