Altafiber is supporting “Studio 5G,” a 5G test lab at Emergence Center One in Fairborn, Ohio.
The service provider is joined by Wright State University and Nokia in the venture. Studio 5G will educate businesses on indoor and outdoor 4G and 5G. In addition, altafiber will use the lab to validate customer use cases, often involving private wireless networks. This will enable proof-of-concept more quickly and less expensively than doing so at customer locations.
One of the use cases that will be validated is seamless mobile connectivity between customer LAN networks and end-user devices such as printers, scanners and tablets. Another will focus on using a cellular backhaul network to support Wi-Fi access points for large open areas such as parks or golf courses.
Altafiber plans to use Studio 5G to create business solutions for enterprise customers using licenses it received in the CBRS Spectrum auction. The licenses are in Ohio (Butler, Clark, Clermont, Greene, Miami, Montgomery and Warren counties) and Kentucky (Boone, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton and Pendleton counties).
Cincinnati Bell brands itself as altafiber in those two states and Indiana.
“We appreciate the Wright State University Foundation’s vision to connect business with technology through Emergence Center One, and we are excited to partner with Nokia on the 5G Test Lab,” Greg Wheeler, altafiber’s president – business markets, said in a press release. “This innovative space provides a tremendous opportunity to educate organizations on how 5G technology can support their strategic connectivity needs.”
Altafiber is active in the Dayton area with enterprise organizations in segments such as health care, logistics and manufacturing. The provider opened an office and retail location in 2022 on Webster Street in the city.
Service providers are working hard at finding use cases for 5G.
Last June, for instance, Hawk Networks and RuralUrban Labs partnered on a 5G smart farm and HardTech hub in Camden, N.J. The hub will support test and development of next-generation automated farm equipment and machinery.
Another example is a healthcare lab for KPMG LLP that will experiment with healthcare technologies using a private 5G network from Verizon.
