Walmart, Verizon in Talks to Test 5G Services in Some Stores

Retailer would install rooftop antennas to test faster connectivity in new health clinics

Walmart Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. are in discussions to outfit the retailer’s stores with antennas and other equipment to create 5G wireless service, a high-profile test of the next-generation networks.

The plan would initially bring 5G service to a pair of locations this year to power new Walmart digital health services the retailer aims to start offering to shoppers and employees, according to people familiar with the matter. It would also provide faster wireless connections for other store operations and the surrounding community, the people said.

If a deal is signed, it would be part of an effort inside the country’s largest retailer to remake its roughly 4,700 U.S. stores into hubs that draw shoppers for medical treatment and other services, not just groceries and clothes. Walmart also could use the 5G services to improve cameras alerting staff to shoplifters or scanning shelves for out-of-stock inventory.

Verizon, meanwhile, has put building a faster 5G network and finding new ways to use it at the center of its corporate strategy. Executives have pitched 5G’s faster speeds and lower latency—the amount of time that machines take to respond to each other—to manufacturers and hospitals as a way to spur automation and put computing power closer to industrial applications.

Still, the faster networks are in their infancy. Carriers must add thousands of new antennas because 5G signals generally travel shorter distances. Verizon and some of its rivals have only built out service in select cities and some sports arenas, which means coverage is limited. Consumers must also buy new 5G-compatible handsets to tap into the new networks.

Walmart would use the Verizon 5G technology in stores where it is opening new health clinics that offer more medical services, according to some of the people familiar with the discussions. The clinics could use the technology to offer interactions with doctors and other health-care providers through streaming video over a mobile phone, the people said. Walmart opened two such health clinics in Georgia last year.

“Health care looks like a big opportunity,” Walmart Chief Executive Doug McMillon said at an investor meeting last month. Walmart aims to offer low-cost health-care services, he said, “in communities where health care is lacking and out of reach for many.”

Here is how the partnership could work for health care: A shopper could allow her medical data to be stored in an app that detects when she arrives at a Walmart store, allowing her to self-register for her visit for preventive care, according to some of the people familiar with the talks. After the appointment, she could pick up her prescription and shop for groceries. The connectivity in the store could detect if the items placed in her cart need to be restocked.

While some of the use cases are possible using current 4G networks, Verizon executives say 5G offers lower latency that enables real-time communication as well as better network security, which is important to providing broader health-care services. Using 5G connectivity, for example, could allow a doctor in a remote location to read a patient’s vitals, watch them walk on a treadmill or analyze the results of tests like electrocardiograms in real time.

Other companies are exploring similar models. Communications infrastructure company Everest Infrastructure Partners is pitching real-estate investment trusts and owners of large property portfolios on the potential to make about $1 million a year from carriers renting access to rooftops for telecom equipment.

Rick Kimball, director of commercial real estate at Everest, said the concept was spurred by 5G networks requiring more antennas positioned closer to consumers, whereas prior generations of wireless service relied on equipment installed on tall towers. “That alone has changed the rules,” Mr. Kimball said.