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Bright Ventures and Verizon’s 5G Lab, with support from Faces of 5G, hosted a recent event in New York City that convened experts to discuss how evolving technologies will impact communities of color. The event sought to examine how leaders from across technology and finance can build a connected future that serves communities while creating value for all. At the event, I had the opportunity to interview Maisha Leek, who is a Partner at Human Ventures, a venture and startup studio based in New York City.  Maisha has lots of experience working with founders and investors from backgrounds that are traditionally under-addressed by the investment community, such as people of color, LGBTQi, and others. I caught up with Maisha to ask her views on 5G’s potential as a transformational technology and why 5G accessibility will be critical in helping to bridge the digital divide.… Read More

Telligen Community Initiative, an Iowa-based grant making organization, supports innovative and forward-looking projects aimed at improving rural health, social well-being, and educational attainment. Their grant services also improve community services in Oklahoma, Illinois, and Colorado. Telligen’s Executive Director Matt McGarvey recognizes the need to connect urban and rural communities through technology and views it as the “great equalizer.” 5G technologies are also going to benefit all areas “in ways we aren’t even envisioning yet.” “From a 5G standpoint, it furthers the ability of the same dollar or the same philanthropy to make that much more of a difference. 5G will also create new solutions and bring that price point down so connections between urban and rural settings will be much more assessable,” according to Matt. Check out the latest video from Faces of 5G and then click here to learn more about Telligen Community Initiative.… Read More

Here’s this week’s rundown of the top 5 stories of 5G news about emerging and innovative technologies. To follow the series, check back here every week and look out for #5Gin5 posts from @Facesof5G. 5G-Powered Coronavirus Care— Amid the global COVID-19 outbreak, 5G is helping to enhance patient care in a Chinese hospital. Service robots and connected devices “offer exhausted human health care workers relief as they care for coronavirus patients nonstop”. Read more here.Ambulances Connected by 5G— Improved connectivity from 5G and other technology will allow connected ambulances to better equip 911 dispatchers and care centers to be prepared for a patient in transit. “The technology, supporters say, will vastly improve patient treatment by allowing for even greater use of data and video and sci-fi technologies that rely on it,” says Jennifer Baljko of Fortune. Read more here.Wearables Seeking New Heights with 5G— Innovative 5G technology, with the help… Read More

Here’s this week’s rundown of the top 5 stories of 5G news about emerging and innovative technologies. To follow the series, check back here every week and look out for #5Gin5 posts from @Facesof5G. Sherwood Forest in 5G – Robin Hood’s famed Sherwood Forest is set to be a 5G forest in March 2021. The powerful next generation network will enable 3D and 4D virtual reality experiences, semi-autonomous vehicles, drones, and robots. Councilor Kay Cutts MBE says, “it will bring the stories associated with Robin Hood and our ancient woodland to life in a new way”. Read more here.Revolutionizing Farming to Meet Food Needs – Advancements in farming will be critical to addressing global food needs given population growth. The UN estimates that the world will need 70% more food in 2050 compared to what was needed in 2009. While the farming industry has been slow to adopt new innovations,… Read More

Unfortunately, the biggest death and injury rate for first responders is traffic accidents. HAAS Alert, a Chicago-based cellular-vehicle communication company, is using technology to tackle this issue.   Fire and police command centers, for example, work with the company to alert drivers when emergency vehicles are approaching. As Cory Hohs, CEO and Co-Founder of HAAS Alert told us, from the time a driver hears a siren or sees an emergency vehicle, they typically have about 2.6 seconds to react. With 5G’s speed and latency, alerts from HAAS can move faster – giving drivers more time to react. “Every second is critical. That’s where you really start to see the power of 5G. … [If you can] give a second back to somebody, it really can save lives,” says Hohs. Check out the latest video from Faces of 5G and then click here to learn more about Haas Alert.… Read More

Here’s this week’s rundown of the top 5 stories of 5G news about emerging and innovative technologies. To follow the series, check back here every week and look out for #5Gin5 posts from @Facesof5G. 5G and AR, A Perfect Match – “Practical magic exists and we all call it Augmented Reality,” says echoAR CEO Alon Grinshpoon. In a guest post for the Faces of 5G blog this week, he identified more data, less time, more users, much cooler, and cheaper app development as the five reasons why 5G and AR are a perfect match. Read more here.Remote 5G Robot Surgery – The intersection of modern medicine and technology can help bring high-level care to underserved populations. In a piece for Fortune, Ryan Madder, Chief of Interventional Cardiology at Spectrum Health Center, discusses the impact 5G could have on telemedicine and cites his recent experience using 5G for remote coronary procedures.… Read More

Alon Grinshpoon is CEO and founder of echoAR (www.echoAR.xyz), a cloud platform for augmented reality (AR) that provides tools and network infrastructure to help developers & companies quickly build and deploy AR apps and content. Practical magic exists and we all call it Augmented Reality (or AR). It is the definitive new medium to experience content in the real world. Through the magic of AR, around 200 million people use face filters every day1 to communicate with friends and 150 million more interact with digital monsters around the world each month2. As with any new form of content, the technology that backs it has to evolve. In this case, it’s wireless networks. The second generation (2G) of mobile communications introduced texting and enabled us to send SMS. With 3G we got wireless internet access to share pictures and browse websites. With the upgrade to 4G LTE, we have high-definition videos… Read More

Here’s this week’s rundown of the top 5 stories of 5G news about emerging and innovative technologies. To follow the series, check back here every week and look out for #5Gin5 posts from @Facesof5G. Trucking with 5G – All Truck Transportation Inc., a Chicago-based truckload carrier, is upgrading from 3G to 5G-compatible tracking equipment to better serve its customers. The company president, Nino Alagna told Transport Topics, “Our customers demand visibility to those trailers on a daily basis. They want to see where their trailers are and how long they have been sitting there so that they can control their trailer fleets as best as possible.” With 5G, they aim to monitor and report this info faster. Read more here.5G Takes Connected Cars Years Ahead – The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) show takes the stage in Las Vegas this weekend. A main spotlight will be 5G technology for connected… Read More

Based in San Francisco, UrbanLeap is a platform that works with local and regional governments around the country to provide the data and tools needed to create innovative solutions for urban challenges. For many metropolitan areas, improvements can be made to transportation, waste and water management, public safety, and energy efficiency. 5G presents a great opportunity for cities, vendors, and platform collaborators like UrbanLeap to work in partnership and find innovate solutions to tackle local needs. UrbanLeap’s  Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Erez Druk thinks 5G is a “win, win, win situation.” Check out the latest video from Faces of 5G and then click here to learn more about UrbanLeap.… Read More

Here’s this week’s rundown of the top 5 stories of 5G news about emerging and innovative technologies. To follow the series, check back here every week and look out for #5Gin5 posts from @Facesof5G. 5G Changing Precision Ag – Farmers jumped to buy drones a few years ago, but according to Scott Burroughs, owner of Bottom Line Solutions in Morton, IL, they aren’t being used to their full potential. He says getting useful data can be time consuming and predicts 5G will change that: “With the enhancement of 5G and the sensing technology that’s coming, I think we could get back to the drone and make it a more useful tool than it is today.” Read more here.Next Level NFL Fan Experiences – The first 5G Super Bowl took place over the weekend and brought fans new experiences. For example, NFL’s OnePass app allowed fans with 5G devices connected to… Read More