Live From Super Bowl LIX: Verizon's Joe Russo on How 5G Can Get to the Next Level for Broadcasters, Fans By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Saturday, February 8, 2025 - 12:11 pm
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Verizon EVP of Global Networks and Technology Joe Russo is on site at Super Bowl LIX making sure that the large Verizon team, and the even larger Verizon 5G and wireless network is running properly. And that network is important as both the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles coaching staffs rely on a Verizon 5G network for their communications and, of course, tens of thousands of fans in the stadium will rely on it for their connectivity. Russo discussed the week's efforts and the future of 5G as a tool for broadcast production with SVG Editorial Director Ken Kerschbaumer.
What does Super Bowl week mean for Verizon given your role working with the NFL but then also supporting wireless needs of fans?
We leverage this event to showcase all our latest and greatest technology. It's not only for the venue itself, or for the back office of the NFL, or the city around it we're trying to put all of the technology we've been developing into the Super Bowl weekend so that we can demonstrate all the new stuff. Several years ago, we first started deploying 5G millimeter wave and we just keep building on that.
This year we have the coach-to-coach communication for the second year. We have a private network for the broadcasters to communicate. And we turned on standalone 5G throughout New Orleans which allows us to then do 5G advanced features this year like slicing for first responders or creators. We can guarantee certain capabilities that they need for what they're trying to do on our networks.
Joe Russo, Executive Vice President and President of Global Networks and Technology (GN&T) at Verizon
You mentioned year two of the coaching communications service. How has that been going?
I meet with the NFL's CIO every month and we talk about lots of different things, and I thought year one was exceptional. The performance of the network, the clarity of the communication is what they were looking for and we over-delivered on that. And now two things have happened since then. First, we are doing it for all their international games via our private 5G portable network that we take with us, and they keep expanding the international games, which makes it challenging for us as we have to work with local carriers. And then the other thing is we're now working with the NFL on expanding the private network we use for coach to coach for other things that they want to do like back-office support or sideline communications. The referees now have watches this year that are connected to the private network so we have proven how a private network can really give them end-to-end communication in a venue.
Obviously, broadcasters have shown they believe in bonded cellular technologies from companies like LiveU or TVU Networks. They are hugely important for broadcasters everywhere. And you mentioned slicing and one of the dreams for broadcasters is the ability to roll out their broadcast cameras for an event and tap into a 5G wireless network. Where are we on the roadmap to making that a reality?
One of four 5G transmission nodes on the field of Super Bowl LIX that will support coaches communications. Only two are active at any one time leaving the other two available as back ups.
We're in the early innings but there are three things that have to come together. The first is you have to have the 5G core to support it and we launched that nationwide last year, so the core now has all the capabilities you need to support 5G advanced features.
The second thing is you have to have the radio access network to support the 5G advanced features. We've taken a bit of a different approach than some of our competitors in that our view is if we're really going to offer these 5G advanced features we need to do them on our mid band or high band spectrums because if it's on the low band spectrum you might as well use 4G LTE. So, our view was let's build out the mid-band spectrum across the nation, get as much of the population covered as we can, and turn that spectrum on with standalone services. So that's kind of our strategy: make our standalone network a true differentiated experience that I could support with the great mid band spectrum, we have the C-band spectrum or millimeter wave, for certain applications like venues.
And then there is the third layer which is the devices have to support it. So today I think Samsung S21, and Apple 14 or newer cellphones all have SA capability. But what we have to work on with the ecosystems of backpacks that may have a 5G chip in it is we need to get them to support standalone networks. And I think that is where the industry is probably the furthest behind: having devices that support standalone networks.
What can be done to speed that along?
There are things we can do like RedCap or reduced capacity 5G which means the core doesn't need to support the kind of complex functions that are on a smartphone. We could reduce the form factor and reduce the cost. Our core now supports Redcap and we're working with all of the device manufacturers to bring the price and form factors down for those 5G SA capable devices so they can be put into backpacks and other things.
And the challenge there is that someone needs to manufacturer devices with those capabilities, but they won't do that unless there is a solid potential customer base who can support the manufacturing of those devices.
Exactly. So, if you look at the tablets on the sidelines that are used by the coaches and players at NFL games as an example, it's a Microsoft tablet today but it doesn't support 5G millimeter wave.
