Walmart, Verizon in Talks to Test 5G Services in Some Stores
March 01 2020 - 5:59AM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah Krouse, Sarah Nassauer and Anna Wilde Mathews
Walmart Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. are in discussions
to outfit the retailer's stores with antennas and other equipment
to create 5G wireless service, a high-profile test of the
next-generation networks.
The plan would initially bring 5G service to a pair of locations
this year to power new Walmart digital health services the retailer
aims to start offering to shoppers and employees, according to
people familiar with the matter. It would also provide faster
wireless connections for other store operations and the surrounding
community, the people said.
If a deal is signed, it would be part of an effort inside the
country's largest retailer to remake its roughly 4,700 U.S. stores
into hubs that draw shoppers for medical treatment and other
services, not just groceries and clothes. Walmart also could use
the 5G services to improve cameras alerting staff to shoplifters or
scanning shelves for out-of-stock inventory.
Verizon, meanwhile, has put building a faster 5G network and
finding new ways to use it at the center of its corporate strategy.
Executives have pitched 5G's faster speeds and lower latency -- the
amount of time that machines take to respond to each other -- to
manufacturers and hospitals as a way to spur automation and put
computing power closer to industrial applications.
Still, the faster networks are in their infancy. Carriers must
add thousands of new antennas because 5G signals generally travel
shorter distances. Verizon and some of its rivals have only built
out service in select cities and some sports arenas, which means
coverage is limited. Consumers must also buy new 5G-compatible
handsets to tap into the new networks.
Walmart would use the Verizon 5G technology in stores where it
is opening new health clinics that offer more medical services,
according to some of the people familiar with the discussions. The
clinics could use the technology to offer interactions with doctors
and other health-care providers through streaming video over a
mobile phone, the people said. Walmart opened two such health
clinics in Georgia last year.
"Health care looks like a big opportunity," Walmart Chief
Executive Doug McMillon said at an investor meeting last month.
Walmart aims to offer low-cost health-care services, he said, "in
communities where health care is lacking and out of reach for
many."
Here is how the partnership could work for health care: A
shopper could allow her medical data to be stored in an app that
detects when she arrives at a Walmart store, allowing her to
self-register for her visit for preventive care, according to some
of the people familiar with the talks. After the appointment, she
could pick up her prescription and shop for groceries. The
connectivity in the store could detect if the items placed in her
cart need to be restocked.
While some of the use cases are possible using current 4G
networks, Verizon executives say 5G offers lower latency that
enables real-time communication as well as better network security,
which is important to providing broader health-care services. Using
5G connectivity, for example, could allow a doctor in a remote
location to read a patient's vitals, watch them walk on a treadmill
or analyze the results of tests like electrocardiograms in real
time.
Other companies are exploring similar models. Communications
infrastructure company Everest Infrastructure Partners is pitching
real-estate investment trusts and owners of large property
portfolios on the potential to make about $1 million a year from
carriers renting access to rooftops for telecom equipment.
Rick Kimball, director of commercial real estate at Everest,
said the concept was spurred by 5G networks requiring more antennas
positioned closer to consumers, whereas prior generations of
wireless service relied on equipment installed on tall towers.
"That alone has changed the rules," Mr. Kimball said.
Write to Sarah Krouse at sarah.krouse@wsj.com, Sarah Nassauer at
sarah.nassauer@wsj.com and Anna Wilde Mathews at
anna.mathews@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 01, 2020 05:44 ET (10:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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