Local start-ups, universities, large enterprises and the public sector will soon be able to develop and test 5G-enabled IoT services at Verizon’s 5G Innovation Hub in Lake Nona, a living lab smart community in Orlando, Florida.

The hub will provide an opportunity to test 5G use cases for connected healthcare, autonomous mobility, smart communities, education, retail and others. Created by the Tavistock Group, Lake Nona is home to thousands of residents, students, visitors, national headquarters and healthcare facilities and is focused on providing a landscape to create innovative experiences across a multitude of industries.

With Verizon’s 5G ultra wideband network on site, innovators will be able to test how fast speeds, high bandwidth and low latency can enhance applications for industries prevalent in Lake Nona such as connected healthcare and technology, autonomous mobility, smart communities, health and wellness, education, retail, and sports.

One of the 5G trials already underway at Lake Nona involves testing cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technology with Beep, an autonomous mobility-as-a-service provider. The initial pilot will examine how C-V2X can improve the safety of Beep’s autonomous shuttles, which operate on several routes throughout the community.

The C-V2X pilot involves Verizon’s 4G LTE and 5G ultra wideband networks, multi-access edge compute, real-time kinematics and computer vision.

“5G is paving the way for unprecedented innovations that will reshape the world and have a massive impact on how we live, work and play,” said Sampath Sowmyanarayan, senior vice president at Verizon. “We’re creating innovation hubs powered by Verizon 5G ultra wideband to serve as launch pads for high-impact, transformational experiences and are excited to see the new 5G use cases that will be developed in Lake Nona.”

The hub will also showcase existing 5G use cases for visitors to experience and includes an executive briefing centre that will provide prospects and customers with access to Verizon experts. Verizon started deploying its 5G ultra wideband network in Lake Nona earlier this year.

“Tavistock is fully committed to the cultivation of 5G technology to usher in a new era of connectivity,” said Juan Santos, senior vice president at Tavistock. “A 5G-enabled future will transform our daily lives in ways we’ve only just begun to imagine. We’re excited to expand our 5G capabilities in Lake Nona and to attract the brightest minds and biggest ideas to the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Orlando.”

This engagement is part of Verizon Business’ broader strategy to partner with enterprises, start-ups, universities, national labs, government and military to explore how 5G can transform nearly every industry. Verizon operates six 5G labs in the USA and one in London that specialise in developing uses cases in industries from healthcare to public safety to entertainment. In addition, Verizon is setting up 5G innovation hubs on-premise for several of its customers as part of an initiative to partner on 5G-related use cases to help companies transform their industries.