Dept of Defense’s plans to modernize military bases with 5G

5G and “Mobile Edge Compute” are poised to help modernize military bases by wirelessly connecting devices and vehicles operating within the Department of Defense’s network infrastructure.

In a recent FedScoop panel, the DOD’s Acting Principal Director for the 5G Initiative, Amanda Toman, shares that the DOD is now poised to look at initial investments with industry and leverage 5G in certain locations.

“The department really sees 5G as a potential to leverage what the commercial market is offering…in terms of communication. 5G — more so than 3G or 4G — really offers some of the features the Department can really leverage, things like low latency, ultra-high bandwidth, the Internet of Things,” Toman shares.

Joining the panel discussion, Bryan Schromsky, managing partner for the 5G Public Sector at Verizon, elaborates on some of Verizon’s challenges with their DOD partners to get 5G into bases.

“One of the challenges of getting 5G onto military bases is that there are still stovepipes…How do you get fiber to these locations? How do you get right away access…to locations that are still historical preservation sites? So, there’s limitations on what you can do to put in infrastructure,” he explains.

Learn more about how Verizon works with its DOD partners to modernize communications on U.S. military bases.

This video panel discussion was produced by Scoop News Group for FedScoop and underwritten by Verizon.