Federated Wireless and Amazon Web Services Inc. are collaborating on a 5G private wireless initiative for a major mixed-use development in the Washington, D.C. area.

The announcement in February provided details around the AWS-Federated partnership in cooperation with developer JBG Smith Properties to deploy 5G private wireless at National Landing urban community. The site will also be home for Amazon’s HQ2 headquarters project, and the private wireless network will provide connectivity for indoor and outdoor areas across the development.

“JBG Smith is investing, in addition to the commercial real estate, in digital place-making where people live, work, play and connect,” said Kurt Schaubach (pictured, right), chief technology officer at Federated Wireless. “Private wireless is a key component of that. And when we talk about private wireless, what we’re doing with AWS is giving the enterprise the freedom to operate a network independent of a mobile network operator.”

Schaubach spoke with theCUBE industry analysts Lisa Martin and David Nicholson at MWC 2023, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. He was joined by Tammy Whyman (pictured, left), global partner lead of telco at AWS, and they discussed recent news surrounding private wireless and the growing role of cloud in network connectivity. (* Disclosure below.)

Convergence in private wireless

AWS made news of its own last month with the launch of the Integrated Private Wireless program. The initiative was developed in collaboration with major telcos, such as T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom and KDDI, and combines private 4G and 5G wireless technologies with AWS Regions, AWS Local Zones, AWS Outposts and AWS Snow.

“The telco industry is really leading a lot of the developments that AWS takes to market in the end,” Whyman said. “This is a program that we launched based on a convergence of the ecosystem of private wireless. It’s a way to discover and procure a private wireless network much more easily than could be done in the past.”

The National Landing and Integrated Private Wireless initiatives illustrate how major cloud providers such as AWS are forming key partnerships in the deployment of new connectivity models for customers.

“What we’re finding is a delayering of the network,” Whyman said. “Customers don’t care if they’re on Wi-Fi, on public spectrum or private spectrum. What they want are networks that are able to talk to each other and provide the right connectivity at the right time with the right pricing model. By moving to the cloud that allows us that flexibility to offer the quality of service and bring in a larger ecosystem of partners.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the MWC 2023 event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for MWC 2023. Neither Dell Technologies Inc., the primary sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE