Millimeter wave start-up Verana Networks has secured Verizon as a field triallist, greatly raising the profile of its 5G millimeter wave solution for Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB). Verana’s package includes small cell radio hardware and software as well as IAB, together with a software-based centralized unit for a vRAN, and a management system. A rising number of operators have mmWave spectrum, but these high frequencies around 26 GHz or 39 GHz have limited range and coverage for mobile broadband applications. However, they are suited to small cells, and have sufficient capacity to support both access and backhaul simultaneously, saving cost and space. “Millimeter wave spectrum is abundant and inexpensive but providing 5G coverage using this spectrum is cost-prohibitive today,” said…