Bell had launched its commercial 5G service in Canada in June 2020
Canadian mobile operator Bell announced the launch of a public multi-access edge computing (MEC) with AWS Wavelength in Canada.
As part of a previous agreement between the two firms, Bell and AWS are deploying AWS Wavelength Zones throughout Canada at the edge of Bell’s 5G network.
The Canadian telco explained that Bell Public MEC with AWS Wavelength embeds AWS compute and storage services at the edge of the Bell 5G network.
Bell Public MEC with AWS Wavelength is now available in the Toronto area, with additional Wavelength Zones to be deployed in the future.
AWS Wavelength is now available in Canada, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, and Japan in partnership with global communications service providers.
“With general availability of AWS Wavelength Zones on Canada’s fastest network, it becomes possible for businesses to tap into all-new capabilities, reaching new markets and serving customers in exciting new ways (…) With our ongoing investments in supporting emerging MEC use cases, coupled with our end-to-end security built into our 5G network, we are able to give Canadian businesses a platform to innovate, harness the power of 5G and drive competitiveness for their businesses,” said Jeremy Wubs, SVP of product, marketing and professional services for Bell Business Markets.
“We are particularly excited about our deep collaboration with Bell as it accelerates innovation across Canada, by offering access to 5G edge technology to the whole AWS ecosystem of partners and customers. This enables any enterprise or developer with an AWS account to power new kinds of mobile applications that require ultra-low latencies, massive bandwidth, and high speeds,” said George Elissaios, director and general manager, EC2 Core Product Management, AWS.
Bell announced the launch of its commercial 5G service in the country in June 2020. The carrier’s 5G service was initially available in Montréal, the Greater Toronto Area, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.
In 2020, Bell Canada had selected Ericsson 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) technology to support its nationwide 5G mobile and fixed wireless access deployment. The carrier started the construction of its 5G network last year, using equipment from Finnish vendor Nokia.
Bell has demonstrated an aggressive approach to its 5G rollout. Last year, the telco announced a CAD1.7 billion (currently $1.32 billion) investment over the next two years to accelerate the rollout of 5G, fiber and rural networks. The financial commitment is in addition to the roughly CAD4 billion it typically invests annually in network expansion and enhancement. The carrier previously said it was expecting to reach 70% of the Canadian population with its 5G service by the end of 2021.
