The project has seen AT&T team up with property developer JBG Smith to create National Landing, a district at the intersection of three neighbourhoods in northern Virginia just north of the Potomac River, which the duo described as the first “5G Smart City at scale”.
AT&T claims it will use 5G to make the National Landing district "a prototype for smart cities of the future" by incorporating self-driving vehicles, "immersive retail and entertainment," and large-scale automation.
As part of the new collaboration, Fortress Solutions will provide design and implementation services as well as operate and maintain the edge data centre facilities for JBG Smith. This will ensure National Landing will have co-location capabilities, ultra-low latency 5G communications, and dark fibre connections to support carrier networks, IoT devices, and next generation artificial intelligence (AI), augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), and robotics applications.
According to JGB Smith, this network will enable “a world-class digital infrastructure” for corporate, residential and retail tenants within National Landing.
JBG Smith delivered the first phase of its proposed converged digital infrastructure platform featuring a ubiquitous outdoor 5G network last year, with 5G small cell infrastructure expected to be on air in the first half of 2023.
Adam Rashid, digital infrastructure lead at JBG Smith, said: “This partnership with Fortress Solutions gives JBG Smith tremendous operational support to deliver on the power of converged digital infrastructure and seamless network operations in National Landing, providing leverage for entrepreneurs, universities, and global technology companies to deliver digital transformation across both their digital landscape and built environment.”
In 2020, JBG Smith acquired seven blocks of Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum for $25.3 million through a US national auction. That included Priority Access Licenses (PAL) covering more than 16.2m sq ft in National Landing where they are also working on construction of Amazon’s 4.8m sq ft HQ2 (visualisation pictured below) and Virginia Tech university’s $1bn innovation campus.
Mo Katibeh, who leads AT&T's Network Infrastructure and Build division, claimed that a "combination of mmWave and sub6 5G spectrum will be enabled by an interconnected series of building side-mounts, street furniture, and underground network infrastructure" across the area.
