Q&A:
The Edge Computing Opportunity: Intelligent and Distributed

Hall 4 - Auditorium 4

Monday 25 February 15:45-17:00

What kind of work is Telefonica doing when it comes to edge computing?

Telefonica has been investigating edge computing for over two years and has developed an open source-based infrastructure for the purpose of experimentation. We have a roadmap of 20+ services and use cases (developed internally and with third parties) and we are methodically evaluating customer’s interest and business potential for each opportunity. We are starting pilots with business customers and consumers which blend traditional services such as TV, fixed, mobile telephony and internet with a few twists such as self-provisioning and self-care of connectivity services; as well as traditional cloud services, such as storage or CDN, with high performance latency and connectivity.

How much investment is needed to make edge computing a reality?

Telefonica’s network virtualisation strategy enables multi-access edge computing as a core function of the network as we upgrade it. From this perspective, edge computing is part of our current capex envelope. As an organic evolution of our networks, edge computing is not an additional investment, it is part of the creation of a more agile, cost-effective, programmable network.

Customer demand and advanced uses cases that emerge could trigger additional investment, proportional to the expected revenues.

Why is edge computing so important for future use cases? Does the business model justify the necessary investments?

Edge computing cannot be solely a technological evolution of our networks. It has to be an enabler of new connectivity experiences. Telefonica’s implementation of edge computing, together with its open and virtualised access enable us to program connectivity and manage specific devices, services, locations or industries’ connectivity differentially and in a deterministic fashion. We believe that these capabilities, together with traditional cloud computing and storage; and programmable ultra-low latency will favour the emergence of new services, as well as new ways to experience traditional telco and TV services.

Will edge computing require closer collaboration between cloud providers and operators?

Telefonica is first deploying edge computing for its own services and networks functions. We are exploring the interest of cloud providers and developers’ communities to take advantage of programmable cloud and storage resources with low latency. If there is sufficient interest, new models might emerge or telco edge computing could be integrated into the larger cloud computing marketplace.