AT&T, developer JBG Smith plan on turning National Landing into 5G Smart City showcase

5G, with local area compute edges, could make National Landing a prototype for smart cities of the future and create a unified consumer experience across asset types. The area could also enhance offerings in mobility and self-driving vehicles, immersive retail and entertainment, and building automation and environmental sustainability.

JBG SMITH’s National Landing portfolio spans 6.8 million square feet of existing office space and 2,856 residential units, 808 units currently under construction plus 7.2 million square feet of additional commercial, multi-family and retail development opportunities in the district. In addition, JBG SMITH is serving as development partner for Amazon’s 4.8 million square foot second headquarters and master developer for Virginia Tech’s forthcoming $1 billion Innovation Campus.

With such a large and growing portfolio of diverse assets and open spaces in National Landing, JBG SMITH is uniquely positioned to support the continuing roll-out of AT&T’s fast, reliable, and secure 5G network. 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. It will blanket this submarket spanning across Arlington and Alexandria, Virginia.

AT&T and JBG SMITH envision National Landing as a canvas for smart city innovation in industry clusters such as defense, cybersecurity, cloud/edge computing, internet of things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI). The robust technology infrastructure that is expected, could give businesses, residents, and visitors the opportunity to connect everything and everyone in near real time. These improvements could transform engagement and experiences in National Landing for business and residents.

The collaboration should further enhance the environment for innovators that are drawn to the neighborhood’s walkable proximity to Amazon, Virginia Tech, the Pentagon, Boeing’s East Coast headquarters, and Reagan National Airport. Proximity to Capitol Hill, the White House, and regulators also may give companies an opportunity to showcase how a 5G network and an open, interoperable technology ecosystem can unlock innovation for industry and government alike.

“The development of 5G, AI, cloud and edge technologies is helping usher in the next level of how technology can improve lives,” explains Mo Katibeh, who leads AT&T’s Network Infrastructure and Build. “Together with JBG SMITH, we intend to build a true smart city from the ground up that will allow future innovators to use AT&T’s network to unlock new capabilities through city-wide edge solutions that can serve specific business locations and everyday users at home or on the go. This includes enabling immersive virtual and augmented reality, and the massive IoT connections that will become a hallmark of National Landing as the most connected city in the country.”

Matt Kelly, CEO at JBG SMITH, adds, “The goal of this collaboration with AT&T is to further enhance National Landing and create the only neighborhood that provides entrepreneurs, universities, and global technology companies the digital infrastructure necessary to shape the future of their industries. We want to equip innovators with the foundational amenities to revolutionize the way they work, giving them an edge above their competition and the confidence to choose National Landing as their home to ideate and innovate locally – and scale globally.”

Article Topics

5G  |  AT&T  |  edge AI  |  IoT  |  JBG Smith  |  MEC  |  mobile edge cloud  |  smart city