T-Mobile’s Accelerator and Innovation Lab is Paving the Way for 5G Adoption Across the US

Why does 5G excite me?!? As a technologist (though I guess everyone on Hackernoon is), I have been on the never-ending hunt to speed up all critical things in my life. The internet is certainly one of those things. The theoretical maximum speed of 5G is 100x faster than current 4G technology. That is faster than a cable internet connection. It's more akin to having a fiber connection installed, but it's wireless! Doesn't that just blow your mind?

I'm not just being dramatic. For the last couple of years, I have devoted my entire life to working on Raven Protocol which speeds up AI training. For example, training a 1M image dataset typically takes 2-3 weeks using conventional methods. We are bringing this down to 2-3 hours.

So when I saw T-Mobile recently announce two big things, I couldn't help but notice my worlds colliding.

T-Mobile Accelerator Names Class of 2020 Startups

5G Open Innovation Lab Launches Inaugural Program for Start-Ups Focused on Emerging Applications for Edge Computing, Artificial Intelligence and More

This is huge news and frankly I don't think most people know big this could be. John Saw, one of the leading pioneers in wireless technology, is now paving the way for 5G adoption across the United States and possibly the world. This is no surprise from such an experienced executive. It is one small step in deep tech innovation that has been in the works for many years.

Why you should be excited about 5G.

Faster internet, faster computations, and lower latency unlocks value creation. T-Mobile knows the power they hold in their hands. When/if 5G works as it was intended, applications will be created that could have never been built before. T-Mobile is betting big on that and their accelerator is working directly with 6 companies to make sure the ecosystem for innovation is laid out correctly for the masses. They are mentoring and advising these startups how to best leverage 5G for their specific applications. Let's have a look at what some of these futuristic applications will look like.

The accelerator was supposed to be in-person, but business as usual on Zoom instead.

Aware Vehicles (Kansas City, MO). Developing autonomous mobile UAV platforms, cognitive remote sensing and advanced imaging, artificial intelligence for situational awareness, and solutions for asset inspection, precision agriculture, emergency response, defense, and communications. (https://www.awarevehicles.com)

Homebase (Kansas City, MO). Automated apartment management solution for improved resident engagement and increased revenue for owners. (https://homebase.ai)

ORBI Prime (Santa Clara, Calif.). Live streaming NFL games from the players’ perspective. ORBI’s 360° 8K 60fps helmets for American Football + real-time video processing AI offer unprecedented console game-like action captured from the players' perspective for mesmerizing engagement of fans of all ages. (https://orbiprime.com)

Seerslab (Palo Alto, Calif.). Media technology company focusing on Vision AI and mobile AR – offering the ARGear platform for developers. (https://www.argear.io/)

Unmanned Life (London, UK). The world’s leading multi-award winning 5G AI for Autonomy company that has pioneered the ground-breaking concept of ‘Autonomy-as-a-Service', deploying commercial-grade Autonomous intelligent connected and integrated teams of different types of drones and robots working together collaboratively for Industry 4.0 and Smart Cities. (https://unmanned.life)

Zoi Meet (Rotterdam, Netherlands). An award-winning (B2B) SaaS solution that uses Artificial Intelligence to turn Enterprise Communication into conversational insights to help business professionals save time while increasing productivity. (https://www.zoimeet.com)

Founders of Zoi Meet taking a selfie. 

But wait, it's bigger than just T-Mobile and 5G

No surprise, but out of probably thousands and thousands of companies who applied to the T-Mobile accelerator, the 6 companies that were selected have some application of AI.

*Drum roll please* As it turns out, some smart leaders at Intel, NASA and T-Mobile joined forces to start the 5G Open Innovation Lab. While T-Mobile could try to do everything on their own, they are investing in building the ecosystem with some of the most groundbreaking organizations in the world.

“We are committed to using our broad and deep nationwide 5G network to accelerate innovation and spur the development of new, transformative applications.”

— John Saw, Executive Vice President of Advanced and Emerging Technologies at T-Mobile, Formerly CTO at Sprint

Are the dots connecting yet? Millions of devices with blazingly fast internet connectivity with promises of low latency. That screams the power of AI inside of your pocket. I would absolutely love if everyone with 5G devices share a few spare cycles of compute to the Raven Protocol network and I am sure every single other technologist can imagine endless ways to use this power.