T-Mobile Unveils New Testing Center at Launch Pad
After months of secrecy, T-Mobile has unveiled a new 20,000 square foot testing lab inside the Launch Pad, company’s innovation and testing facility. GeekWire recently toured the facility, which employees roughly 200 workers that test the function and durability of a range of devices, from smart homes to iOT gadgets.
Grant Castle, the VP of Engineering and Quality Assurance at T-Mobile says, “We have lots of smart engineers coming up with ideas. When they want their ideas to come to life, this is where they come.”
Over the two decades since T-Mobile established the facility, it has grown significantly, from approximately 10,000 square feet to nearly 100,000. Launch Pad is located in close proximity to Bellevue and Redmond, and is close to the emerging Spring District, where Facebook and REI will soon set up shop.
For the last eighteen months, T-Mobile has invited visitors to a “Tech Experience,” which explores a 5G future with demos of smart mirrors, devices, interactive features and other retail products.
Senior Engineer and Design Lead for Tech Experience Jason Mazur says, “Imagine this being linked to a pair of smart glasses that then connects to your 5-G enabled device . . . This could be a paper jam stuck in your printer. This could be how to change the water filter at home, how to set up your Internet connection, walking you through all of these steps, streaming to your device very quickly without having to download all this content in advance of the expected use.”
To be sure, 5G is set to disrupt the industry as it unrolls across the United States. In early 2019 I covered tech trends from top Seattle tech representatives and also top products from the CES 2019 convention, which revealed that much of our tech-driven future will be impacted by 5G.