As Verizon prepares to use standalone (SA) 5G technology to offer network slicing services, one of the company’s targets likely will be public safety customers.

“At the end of this year, we are starting to deploy network slicing,” Bryan Schromsky, managing partner for Verizon’s public-sector unit, said at a recent trade show, according to Urgent Communications, which is owned by Light Reading’s parent company, Informa. “The ability to add dynamic policies [that allow users] to subscribe to low latency and more bandwidth is a game-changer.”

Indeed, Verizon announced late last year that it is moving customer traffic onto its new 5G SA core, roughly two years after the mobile operator’s initial launch timeline. That core is designed to support network slicing.

However, Verizon officials have said that the company must wait for enough SA-capable 5G devices to hit the market before moving forward with commercial network slicing services.

Priming the market

Public safety is one area where Verizon sees potential for network slicing.

“We will be continuing to work with our public safety partners to innovate with them,” Maggie Hallbach, the president of Verizon’s Frontline business, told Light Reading. Frontline is the brand Verizon has applied to its public safety offerings.

Drone communications is an example of the type of application that could make use of Verizon’s network slices, according to Hallbach. Such gadgets require speedy, low-latency services alongside encrypted connections.

Hallbach said Verizon has no firm timeline for launching network slices for public safety users but is actively preparing to provide such services as necessary.

Verizon’s interest in selling network slices to its Frontline public safety customers is clear based on some of the recent marketing postings to its website.

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