Vodafone teams up with AWS to launch MEC services in the UK

General availability scheduled for later this year as trials continue in Germany

Vodafone has partnered with Amazon Web Services to launch Multi-access Edge Compute (MEC) services for 5G networks in the UK.

This will provide Vodafone business customers in the UK with MEC services delivered with AWS Wavelength.

It comes as Vodafone has been working with AWS since November last year, with the launch following a number of trials.

These trials have focused on a variety of areas including sports technology, autonomous transport, biometric security, remote virtual reality and factory automation.

The deployment of MEC infrastructure effectively moves services ‘closer to the edge of the network’, with the AWS wavelength doing this for AWS Compute and storage services to the edge of Vodafone’s network.

This helps to enable applications that require increased speeds, huge amounts of bandwidth and ultra-low latency.

The advantages of using these MEC services include security, cost and scale efficiencies.

Beyond boundaries

Vodafone UK business director Anne Sheehan (pictured) said: “We are taking our business beyond the traditional boundaries of telecoms connectivity services so that we can bring customers amazing new services. Edge Compute and 5G is a combination no other service provider can deliver in Europe, which means we can offer something unique to our customers.

Vodafone’s partnership with AWS will see the operator initially offering low-latency MEC services to customers in London and the surrounding areas.

The service is also available to Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and Cardiff. Next year Vodafone will deploy AWS wavelength to serve customers in Scotland, and northern regions in England.

AWS Wavelength general manager and director of product management George Elissaios said: “By combining AWS Wavelength and Vodafone 5G, businesses and applications developers can now leverage the full breadth of AWS cloud services right at the edge of 5G networks.

“This enables Wavelength customers to explore new business opportunities, build applications and services that were not possible before, and transform user experiences in the UK.”