Displaying items by tag: Group CEO

Verizon has opened a new 5G Lab and production studio in London – the company’s first 5G-enabled facility outside the United States – to support its international business and media customers. The Lab, which is now open for business, is based at Verizon’s Mid City Place office in central London, and offers a live Verizon 5G-enabled environment where organizations can develop and test 5G applications and experiences.

US operator Verizon sought to extend its 5G reach beyond its home market, opening a laboratory in the UK where it can experiment and share ideas for next generation use cases with international partners. European investment enables Verizon to more easily share 5G leadership and expertise with companies based outside the U.S.

Verizon’s 5G Labs are designed to offer technology innovators a space to grow the 5G ecosystem. Start-ups, academics, companies and organizations work with Verizon in the Labs to explore the boundaries of 5G network technology, co-create new applications and hardware, and rethink what’s possible in a 5G world. The potential use cases include exploring how autonomous vehicles, smart communities, virtual healthcare, smart manufacturing, the industrial Internet of Things, immersive education, augmented and virtual reality and responsive gaming can be enhanced with 5G's super fast speeds, massive bandwidth and low latency.

Verizon’s London Lab enables the company to share its experience and expertise in 5G-enabled application delivery with companies based outside the U.S. Organizations visiting the Lab can see existing 5G use cases and experiences in action, and can also work with the Verizon team to develop 5G-enabled applications. 

“Verizon has proven expertise in delivering 5G in the U.S.,” said Tami Erwin, Group CEO, Verizon Business. “One of the best ways of unleashing the true possibilities of 5G is getting it into the hands of innovators and visionaries. Our London facility enables our international customers to benefit from this expertise as they look to deploy 5G-enabled applications and experiences.”

The London Lab showcases a selection of 5G-enabled use cases across a number of different verticals, including advertising and entertainment, education, manufacturing, medical, retail, utilities and venues. These include a mobile command center, an augmented shopping experience and smart retail shelving, intelligent asset management and AR-enabled workspace reimagining. 

In addition, Verizon will open a 5G-enabled production studio in London in April 2020 to complement the 5G Lab facility. The studio will offer a space where Verizon Media’s owned and operated brands, as well as its partners and customers, can produce premium quality, 3D content including virtual and augmented reality experiences using state-of-the-art facilities like volumetric capture, motion capture and AR broadcast.  It is also 5G-enabled, providing an incubator space for innovative creative companies to test and learn about how they can build content in the future that benefits from its capabilities to transmit massive amounts of data almost instantaneously.

Guru Gowrappan, CEO, Verizon Media said: “Our 5G Studio, powered by RYOT’s platform, in Los Angeles was the world’s first 5G production studio when it opened last year, and now we are opening a new studio in London, offering all the same incredible next-generation content production facilities and platform. The new London studio represents our continued commitment to give our consumers access to premium next-generation experiential content across our global ecosystem of brands. As we move from a 2D world into a world that includes 3D content, Verizon Media is providing our publishers and advertisers access to a cutting-edge technology platform, giving them the ability to experiment with 5G, and providing the means to distribute them at scale.”

BAI Communications has announced that global wireless communications executive Igor Leprince has been appointed to the role of Group Chief Executive Officer commencing 1st May 2020.

Mr Leprince has more than two decades of experience designing, building and operating wireless communications infrastructure around the world, including more than ten years at Nokia, where he was President of Global Services.

His current roles include Chair of West Midlands 5G, Chair of AWTG, Senior advisor for Bain & Company as well as board advisor and investor in multiple technology companies.

"Igor has a proven record of partnering with the industry by helping them improve their existing wireless infrastructure and planning the next generation of public infrastructure for their citizens. He also has significant experience in growing and running large scale global telecommunications businesses," Ms Deena Shiff, BAI Chairman, said today.

"Igor brings his global communications industry experience to BAI at a time when we are planning and executing on our next stage of growth," she said.

BAI began in 2002 as Broadcast Australia, a company that managed broadcast transmission services for customers in Australia and has since grown to become a leading provider of communications infrastructure for customers in major cities across the globe.

"BAI Communications has grown from its broadcast foundations in Australia to achieve success globally, exporting its expertise to benefit people in Europe, Asia and North America," Mr Leprince said.

"I am delighted to lead a global organisation known for excellence in connecting communities. I look forward to working with my new colleagues to help BAI build on that reputation by making our customers' networks more resilient and helping them realise the potential of 5G and other new technologies," he said.

Mr Leprince will split his time between Australia, the global locations where BAI has customers, and the United Kingdom, where he and his family will continue to reside.

Chairman Deena Shiff acknowledged BAI Group Chief Financial Officer Stephen Matthews for so capably acting in the role of Group CEO until Mr Leprince's commencement.

Leprince was born and educated in Paris, France. He was awarded a Master of Science in Computer Science, Systems and Networks from Université Paris Diderot and a Master in Telecommunications Network Engineering from ENST Paris. Since then, he has gained global experience in the telecom industry.

He joined Nokia in 2007, living in the United Kingdom, Dubai and Finland. He served in multiple roles including Global Head of Network Planning and Optimization, Global Head of Care and President, Middle East and Africa.

His last role in Nokia was Nokia's President of Global Services, and member of Nokia’s executive board, from 2014 to 2018, where he was responsible for a global P&L of EUR 6 billion and 25,000 employees.