Verizon Communications broke ground today on its multimillion-dollar LTE Technology Innovation Center in Waltham, Mass., the latest step the company is taking toward Verizon Wireless' commercial launch of its LTE network later this year.
The center, which Verizon Communications CTO Richard Lynch first announced in February 2009, will house around 300 total employees. Verizon owns a 55 percent stake in Verizon Wireless; the other 45 percent is owned by Vodafone.
The 60,000-square-foot center will join two other Verizon buildings on the company's campus in Waltham, and is expected to include research labs and an executive briefing center. It will be the hub of Verizon's LTE testing; the company has been conducting LTE trials in nearby Boston since last summer. Construction is expected to begin later the spring and be completed by early next year.
Verizon plans to conduct friendly user trials of its LTE service this summer in advance of the wider commercial rollout. The carrier has said it plans to launch to 25 to 30 commercial markets this year, covering 100 million POPs.
For more:
- see this release
- see this Boston Globe article
- see this Boston Business Journal article
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