Sprint Opens Experience Center To Educate Visitors On 5G

Sprint has opened a 5G Experience center at its Kansas City headquarters to demonstrate and educate visitors on how the next-generation wireless technology works and the benefits it stands to deliver.

The dedicated 1,100 square foot space showcases how 5G will enhance gaming and entertainment, impact public safety and power billions of connections with IoT.

With more than a dozen stations and demos, visitors can learn about the building blocks of 5G, including from spectrum to a fiber-optics network, and of course about Massive MIMO technology, which Sprint is leveraging for its forthcoming 5G mobile service. The center also features real-world demos of lower latency enabled by 5G.

“We are thrilled to provide our guests and employees an exciting way to experience the future of wireless technology in a fun and educational way in our new space,” said Steve Gaffney, Sprint vice president of media and experiential marketing, in a statement. “With Sprint 5G coming soon in our first nine markets, this dedicated venue will provide unique and interactive ways to tell the story of 5G and help visitors visualize the types of innovations it will bring.”

A number of Sprint’s major ecosystem partners helped support the 5G Experience center, including Ericsson, Intel, LG, Nokia, Qualcomm, and Samsung.

“We are excited to be a part of Sprint’s new immersive environment to offer a glimpse of Sprint’s vision of 5G. Nokia is showcasing its end-to-end 5G approach and technology innovations through massive MIMO, lower latency and mobile edge computing with its software demos. These are designed to show visitors how business, industry and human experiences can be transformed through Sprint’s 5G network,” said Ricky Corker, president of Customer Operations for the Americas, Nokia.

The first markets slated for Sprint’s commercial 5G service, expected to launch in May, are Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and Kansas City. Following those, service will launch in Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington D.C., within the first half of 2019. Sprint says its initial footprint will cover more than 1000 square miles across all of the cities.―ECN