Samsung’s effort to establish a more significant presence in the stateside wireless market continued earlier this week as the company confirmed Verizon selected it as its main supplier of network equipment for its experimental 5G service that will be coming to Houston in the final quarter of the year. The Texan metropolis was announced as Verizon’s third 5G testbed several days back, with Samsung being set to provide the telecom giant with both routers and radios meant to enable the next generation of connectivity in the area.
Samsung and Verizon previously partnered on a wide variety of 5G tests, having experimented with everything from millimeter-wave communications to tablets capable of using the new wireless standard. The South Korean technology giant will also be supplying networking gear to Verizon in Sacramento, another major U.S. city that’s scheduled to receive the network operator’s experimental 5G service later this year. While Samsung faced significant difficulties in penetrating the U.S. wireless market due to spectrum incumbency during the 3G and 4G LTE eras, the fifth generation of mobile networks is providing the company with an opportunity to start anew and establish its presence in the industry from the very beginning, the firm’s Marketing Director Derek Johnston said in a statement to Mobile World Live earlier this week.
Samsung and Verizon’s 5G plans in the United States are presently focused on fixed wireless access solutions meant to rival broadband Internet services, though the firms previously signaled they’ll be looking to build on their existing collaboration moving forward. Following limited deployment set to take place in late 2018, large-scale 5G buildouts in the country are expected to start next year, with all national carriers previously promising to reach countrywide coverage by 2020. Samsung’s arrival makes the wireless market more competitive and may end up reducing 5G deployment costs, at least in terms of routers and radios compatible with the wireless standard that’s promising to revolutionize telecommunications and drive massive economic growth by enabling a broad range of new technologies.