Verizon Communications will begin the first commercial tests of its ultra high-speed 5G wireless service next year, confirmed CEO Lowell McAdam. The pilot trails will start at the company's Basking Ridge, New Jersey headquarters and will involve a limited number of users.

5G technology will enable data output speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps).The fifth generation wireless service will bring with it remarkable improvements in speed and connectivity. Verizon is the largest wireless communications service provider in the U.S.

“I showed my board the service in November”, said McAdam,” reported Business Insider. He said “you don’t ever go to a board with something that’s not real”.

McAdam also revealed the 5G roll out route will take the tech to San Francisco, New York and Boston in 2016. Most Verizon users will have wait till 2017 for 5G. McAdam confirmed the official commercial mass roll out will take place starting 2017.

This means smartphones with 5G won’t be available until 2018 or even beyond. McAdam didn’t reveal many details about Verizon’s 5G project but hinted that bills will almost remain the same as today.

Last September, Verizon announced it was pioneering the 5G Technology Forum (see video below) in collaboration with Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung and Intel.

Furthermore, the University of Surrey also opened its 5G Innovation Centre (5GIC) at its Guildford UK campus. The project is funded by more than £70 million (AU$150 million). It’s the world’s largest academic research centre with 170 dedicated researchers.

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