BASKING RIDGE, NJ, and WALTHAM, MA — Verizon broke ground on its new Technology Innovation Center in Waltham, Mass. The center will be a catalyst for delivering new and innovative devices and services that connect people, places and things, using next-generation wireline and wireless technology.
The Verizon Technology Innovation Center will be the first-of-its-kind collaboration hub for expanding the telecommunications ecosystem by taking advantage of the convergence of new technologies to offer customers powerful new products and services.
The brainchild of Dick Lynch, Verizon executive vice president and chief technology officer, the Verizon Technology Innovation Center is designed to provide a central base for Verizon’s advanced technology initiatives. It will house office and lab space for some of the country’s leading technologists and scientists as well as a state-of-the-art Executive Briefing Center where partners, consumer electronics companies, innovation collaborators, business executives and public officials can meet to discuss and collaborate on forward-looking technologies such as FiOS and next-generation 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless technology. Application and advancement of these new technologies will be a key focus.
Together with the Verizon Technology Campus at Waltham – which houses Verizon technical staff focused on end-to-end architecture, design and testing of the Verizon network as well as IT applications development – the Technology Innovation Center will employ a total of more than 300 leading technologists. The additional space will provide the facilities, partner meeting spaces and collaboration areas that are necessary to keep the Waltham campus a world-class center.
Work at the Verizon Technology Innovation Center will include:
* Planning for the continued integration of Verizon wireline and wireless networks
* Providing a home base for the development of the first nationwide 4G LTE network in the U.S., now undergoing user trials in the Boston area
* Expanding support for third parties that are working on new devices and applications for use on Verizon’s networks
* Ongoing testing to ensure continued global network interoperability with other worldwide network companies, including British Telecom, Deutche Telekom, France Telecom, NTT and China Telecom
* Optimizing and advancing the portion of the Internet provided and maintained by Verizon
* Maximizing connectivity and performance of Verizon’s customers to the Internet
* Conducting user experience testing and focus groups for products such as FiOS TV and FiOS broadband
* Developing ideas and applications for the National Science Foundation’s Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) project for Web 2.0
Verizon’s Lynch said, “Verizon is recognized as a global leader in innovation and technology, and the Verizon Technology Innovation Center will allow our world-class scientists and IT professionals to continue to have the leading-edge resources they need to develop the technologies, products and services that can dramatically change the way we live. As a Massachusetts native, I’m extremely pleased to be here shaping Verizon’s technology investments and creating Verizon’s future technology vision in the Bay State.”
The Verizon Technology Innovation Center is scheduled to be completed in early 2011 and will include a 60,000-square-foot, three-story facility located in the Reservoir Woods East Campus off of Winter Street in Waltham. The property is owned by Davis Marcus Partners, a venture between Marcus Partners and The Davis Companies, in partnership with Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI). The new building, designed by noted Boston architect Howard Elkus of Elkus-Manfredi, will be developed to LEED Silver standards of the United States Green Building Council.
When the Verizon Technology Innovation Center is complete, the current 136,000-square-foot Verizon Technology Campus in Waltham will be expanded to a total of 196,000 square feet.
Waltham was selected as the site for the new center because of the company’s partnership with local high-tech innovators, including Airvana, Starent (now part of Cisco), Camiant, Acme Packet, NetNumber and Sonus Networks, and because of the site’s proximity to other local entrepreneurial tech firms and the wealth of Massachusetts’ academic and research institutions.
The Waltham location also supports Verizon’s leadership in the Massachusetts IT Collaborative, an organization formed by Gov. Deval Patrick and composed of business, academic and government leaders who are working to create more investment opportunities and jobs in the IT sector in the Bay State.
Greg Bialecki, Massachusetts secretary of housing and economic development, noted, “The Verizon Technology Innovation Center brings a new generation of wireless technology innovation and opportunity here to Massachusetts. This investment is key to supporting the state’s constantly growing technology sector, and is a prime example of what is possible here in the Commonwealth.”
The site in Waltham also serves as the hub of wireless technology and user trials in the Boston area. Verizon Wireless has been testing its forthcoming 4G LTE network in Boston since August 2009 and is on track to deliver an outstanding wireless data experience to customers in the area, as well as in 25 to 30 other markets, covering roughly 100 million people by the end of this year. Verizon Wireless is currently installing LTE equipment at existing cell sites and switching centers around the U.S. as part of its extensive, ongoing investment in its voice and data network infrastructure.
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