Canadian carrier Telus and Deutsche Telekom-backed edge computing company MobiledgeX are working together on a mobile edge computing trial network in Canada. This will be the first Canadian deployment for MobiledgeX.
Ibrahim Gedeon, CTO at Telus, said that partnering with MobiledgeX to pilot its world-class edge computing technology “will ensure that Telus customers continue to enjoy Canada’s largest and fastest mobile network in the future.”
Telus will trial MobiledgeX’s Edge-Cloud R1.0, which the company said aggregates processing capabilities in “virtualized cloudlets in key locations near the edge of TELUS’ wireless and wired access networks.” Those locations can then be leveraged, through MobiledgeX, by developers, device manufacturers or others who have workloads that have either performance or data governance requirements that would benefit from localized computing resources.
Edge computing is one of the foundational elements of enabling low latency in 5G networks, by placing computing resources as close to users as possible — although its use is not limited to 5G and can certainly be used in a 4G context as well.
“The massive edge computing opportunity can only be realized when it can benefit from ubiquity and scale,” said Eric Braun, chief commercial officer at MobiledgeX, in a statement. “Our work with Telus delivers exactly that, reflecting an aligned vision for the future of mobile operators as key players in mobile application development, performance, security, and reliability.”
MobiledgeX launched its first public edge network in February with six sites made available by parent company DT. At Mobile World Congress, the company demonstrated edge computing-enabled mobile gaming in partnership with Niantic, DT and Samsung.
Watch an RCR Wireless News interview with MobiledgeX President and CEO Jason Hoffman below, in which Hoffman discusses his company’s approach to edge computing, its MWC demo, and why MEC matters for multi-player mobile gaming and other applications.
