Vodafone has extended its multi-access edge (MEC) arrangement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) into Spain. The UK-headquartered operator said its tie-up with AWS in Spain, to embed the cloud firm’s Wavelength compute platform into its 4G-LTE and 5G network edge, makes it the only European operator to offer customers in multiple European countries both high bandwidth 5G and low-latency MEC – in partnership with AWS, at least.
The pair have already deployed Wavelength (as Wavelength Zones) on the Vodafone network in Germany and the UK, in a partnership that started back in 2021. Availability of MEC is focused on big urban centres – specifically London, Manchester, Berlin, Munich, and Dortmund. Newer pilot deployments in the state of Andalusia, in Southern Spain, covering the cities of Almería, Córdoba, Granada, Jaén, Malaga, plus parts of Seville, are now available to local enterprises.
MEC moves cloud-based services to the edge of the network, removing latency from multiple hops between aggregation sites and across the internet. Latency can, on paper, be as low as single-digit milliseconds between the mobile base station and the MEC infrastructure, suggested Vodafone. It listed time-sensitive services such as remote surgery, industrial robots, critical IoT, biometric (‘passwordless’) security, and autonomous cars as prime use cases
Vodafone Business, the firm’s enterprise division, has been testing the company’s Safer Transport for Europe Platform (STEP) road safety application as part of its original Spanish pilot. The STEP initiative connects drivers directly with transport authorities and each other to share safety information, hazard warnings, and traffic updates. It feeds data into the national transport data platform, run by The Directorate-General for Traffic (DGT).
Data will be used also to refine automotive test capabilities at vehicle test and inspection group DEKRA, as well as to improve safety for highway workers and control smart traffic lights. Meanwhile, Vodafone Business said its new MEC engines in Spain will be shortly used to test augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR; XR) to provide enterprises in agriculture, logistics, industry, entertainment, and social health with 3D digital twin of critical applications.
It stated: “This will allow them to make near-instant changes without the need for a physical site visit. MEC builds on, and enhances, the many applications being developed or used across multiple sectors in Germany and the UK, for example when driving autonomous shuttle buses or instantly detecting a defective product in a production line.” It said “more than 30 companies” have done MEC pilots in the UK and Germany.
Jennifer Didoni, Head of Cloud, Edge & Mobile Private Networks, Vodafone Business, said: “5G and edge computing will help our customers transform their industries. Working with AWS, Vodafone Business can deliver applications and IT tool to customers in milliseconds, faster than the human eye or ear can even perceive. By bringing these services closer to the customer across Germany, Spain, and the UK, they can access apps on tap in more places, in high definition, at machine speed, with performance that wasn’t possible before.”
