Vodafone set to launch mobile edge cloud service in UK with AWS

In collaboration with AWS, Vodafone Business’ distributed MEC service will be rolled out from the spring of 2021, starting with the first commercial centre in London, UK, and with other locations in the UK and Germany to follow. These will give business customers, application developers and independent software vendors (ISVs) a head start in developing new digital services and access to real-time analytics so they can better respond to events and end-user needs.

The commercial MEC centre in London will provide an ultra-low latency zone over a wide area and make use of Vodafone’s 5G network in the capital, named the best for video streaming and web browsing by leading mobile benchmarking company, umlaut. In addition to areas within and around London, the low latency zone will extend to Cambridge, Oxford, Birmingham, Bristol, and Cardiff, as well as many towns home to tech firms along the M4 motorway corridor and parts of Wales and Cornwall.

MEC is a key component to unlock the full potential of 5G as it moves cloud-based IT services to the edge of the network, providing services with almost instantaneous connectivity. Combined, MEC and 5G is the platform on which remote surgery, connected industrial robots and autonomous cars as well as critical IoT applications will work by allowing ultra-low latency response times between the user and the application housed within the edge of the network.

Typically today mobile data response times are 50 to 200 milliseconds. Vodafone recently achieved a low latency time – the total round trip time (RTT) from the base station to the location where the MEC application server is hosted – of less than 10 milliseconds between a test location near Newbury in the south of England and Birmingham in the Midlands.

This news builds on the agreement Vodafone Business and AWS announced last year. Vodafone has been piloting MEC based on the AWS Wavelength Zones with customers in two beta trial sites in the UK. An additional beta trial location is due to open in Dusseldorf, Germany, early next year with general availability in Dortmund later in 2021. This first AWS Wavelength Zone in Germany will enable developers to create ultra-low latency applications for organisations in the economic heart of Germany, including Dusseldorf and Cologne. In addition to London, these locations will also be used to support innovation hubs for business customers and ISVs.

Vodafone Business will run a MEC innovation program in collaboration with AWS from early 2021 for a wider developer and business community to experiment with this new technology.  Interested parties can find out more about the program at this link here.

Article Topics

5G  |  AWS  |  drones  |  MEC  |  mobile edge cloud  |  Vodafone  |  wireless