Last year, Wisconsin officials signed a deal for Taiwan-based manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group to build a $10 billion manufacturing campus in the southeastern Wisconsin village of Mount Pleasant.
Initially, Foxconn’s focus in Wisconsin will be on LCD manufacturing and the assembly of TVs, but the company has big plans to advance the 8K+5G ecosystem in the U.S.
“We believe that the Wisconsin campus will be a flag-bearer for intelligent manufacturing in the Industry 4.0 era, and help position Wisconsin as a global leader in high-technology advanced manufacturing,” Foxconn executives said in a statement last year. “The Wisconsin campus will also provide a platform for the development of next-generation hardware and solutions as part of our 8K+5G ecosystem, and serve a catalytic role in cultivating a new class of vertical solution providers.”
The 8K+5G ecosystem the company is referring to is the next generation of screen resolution and cell tower capabilities.
According to industry professionals, an 8K screen displays a 33-megapixel image.
By comparison, Full HD screen resolution, known as 1080p, produces just a 2-megapixel image.
The introduction of 4K television screens, many of which have only recently become accessible to the mass consumer, provides just an 8-megapixel image – less than some smartphone images.
Foxconn wants to make the Mount Pleasant campus the first facility in the U.S. capable of producing 8K systems.
Newer devices require faster, more connected wireless networks. Foxconn plans to be a driving force behind the continued rollout of the 5G (fifth generation) wireless network in the U.S.
Major providers including Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless have begun testing 5G capabilities in cities across the U.S., but widespread rollout is not expected until 2019 or 2020.
The expansion of 5G is expected to bring more power to the “Internet of Things” movement and the overall consumer electronics experience.
Foxconn officials believe the company can drive significant changes, not just in how people watch television, but also in industries like automotive, defense, medicine, education and advanced manufacturing. And they need partners in Wisconsin and beyond to make it happen.
