Verizon, GELSEN-NET and K-TEL launch Digital Hub Ruhr in Germany

Verizon Business, GELSEN-NET and K-TEL has launched Digital Hub Ruhr in Germany, the latest innovation hub in a growing global network of spaces dedicated to 5G, MEC, and other connected technologies. The new hub is a joint venture with Verizon Business, IT systems developer GELSEN-NET and IT solutions provider K-TEL.

Located at GELSEN-NET's company site in Gelsenkirchen, the digital hub will serve as a showroom and innovation centre for advanced 5G, edge compute, and IoT (Internet of Things) solutions. It’s a flexible, 160-square-metre environment that will present a range of use cases utilising state-of-the-art 5G, fibre optic, and LoRaWAN campus networks. Priority use cases and industry verticals include crowd management, smart city applications, manufacturing and logistics, and medical technology.

Integrated into several projects throughout the city of Gelsenkirchen, Digital Hub Ruhr will demonstrate the range and utility of private cloud structure, and facilitate the connection between innovators and municipalities to the RuhrCix, the central Internet node in the Ruhr region, in cooperation with Decix and the municipal carriers GELSEN-NET, Dokom and Glasfaser Ruhr. Digital Hub Ruhr will connect institutions, companies, researchers and municipalities. The hub is expected to open on 16th November.

“Private 5G brings immediate enterprise-scale data capability wherever it is deployed. Massive bandwidth and speed, incredible device density capability, and, with 5G Edge, low-latency compute power to realise a plethora of data-intensive business applications. The Hub program is about helping partners, customers, startups, researchers and more to see 5G solutions and work and understand how they can transform businesses, said Jennifer Artley, Senior Vice President, 5G Acceleration, Verizon Business. “Working with our partners GELSEN-NET and K-TEL, we’re so excited to bring these capabilities to an innovation-focused state-of-the-art facility like Digital Hub Ruhr and help expand the global innovation knowledge base.”

"This project will have an impact beyond the Ruhr metropolitan region through the collaboration with Verizon Business and K-TEL,” said Thomas Dettenberg, Managing Director of GELSEN-NET. “We are proud to be co-founders of this space for innovation."

“We intend to bring in even more top technology partners and expand Digital Hub Ruhr’s range of use cases and demos,” said Boris Krell, Managing Director of K-Tel Communication GmbH. “As a long-standing partner of Verizon with customers across Europe, we have the expertise to bring this plan to fruition and continue to build on what we’ve initiated at Digital Hub Ruhr.”

Digital Hub Ruhr joins a global network of Verizon Business innovation centres and solutions-oriented partnerships, including facilities in the U.K. and throughout the U.S. Verizon collaborates with various customers and partners to establish 5G Innovation Hubs on-premises as part of an ongoing initiative to co-innovate and create new 5G applications.