Eventual plan is national roll-out that could support IoT applications across BT’s 5G network
BT has announced “a multi-million-pound investment to bring 5G and 4G mobile edge computing services” to its UK business customers in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The plan is to combine AWS’ cloud with EE’s 5G and 4G infrastructure to make faster, secure bandwidth available for use cases like policing, crowd management, healthcare and security.
It will start with a new AWS Wavelength Zone in Manchester (pictured), which will service trials for eligible businesses and public sector organisations within a 100km radius including Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Blackpool.
BT’s ambition is to roll out AWS Wavelength to business customers across the UK more broadly “in the coming years”, which doesn’t suggest a huge sense of urgency.
On your Wavelength?
AWS Wavelength embeds AWS compute and storage services within 5G and 4G networks, providing mobile edge computing infrastructure for ultra-low-latency applications.
Hosting services directly at the edge of EE’s UK network reduces lag, as applications’ traffic can reach application servers running in the AWS Wavelength Zone without leaving BT’s network.
This, BT says, opens up mobile edge computing infrastructure for businesses to develop, deploy and scale secure mobile IoT applications over BT’s existing 5G network securely.
This includes autonomous vehicles, cameras for policing and other public services, outside broadcast, smart industrial robots and in community healthcare such as for monitoring for falls and other accidents in care homes.
Accelerate innovation
Alex Tempest, Managing Director for BT Wholesale said: “…launching the AWS Wavelength service for our business and wholesale customers is a hugely important step on our journey”.
She added, “By building cloud edge services into our 5G and 4G EE network, we can accelerate innovation across industries, and bring fast, secure data processing closer to where our customers need it most. Ultimately, we want to give businesses and public sector organisations all the power of edge computing, wherever they are.”
As the planned amalgamation of the BT Enterprise unit and BT Global arm indicates (announced last November), the former UK monopoly needs all the help it can get in the business sector.