Verizon Wireless broke ground today on its new Technology Innovation Center in Waltham, Mass.

The multimillion-dollar center is the brainchild of Verizon Chief Technology Officer Dick Lynch and will provide a base for the operator’s technology initiatives, including LTE and FiOS.

“I want to get to the point where a consumer doesn’t even have to think about the fact that their devices are connected,” Lynch says. “We’ve always looked at 100 percent penetration as someplace we needed to go. Today that’s meaningless. Let’s talk about 500 percent, 600 percent penetration.”

Verizon will employ more than 300 technologists and scientists at the center, which will be located in the operator’s existing technology campus. The center will also serve as a meeting place for consumer electronics companies, business executives and public officials to collaborate on forward-looking technologies.

When the building is complete, the current 136,000-square-foot Verizon Technology Campus in Waltham will be expanded to a total of 196,000 square feet.

The site in Waltham also serves as the hub of wireless technology and user trials in the Boston area, where Verizon Wireless has been testing its forthcoming 4G LTE network since August 2009. The company plans to cover about 100 million people with its LTE network by the end of this year.