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Vodafone (VOD) Spurs MEC Adoption in UK With Amazon Tie-Up

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Vodafone Group Plc (VOD - Free Report) recently joined forces with Amazon.com, Inc.’s (AMZN - Free Report) subsidiary — Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) — for the debut deployment of Multi-access Edge Compute (MEC) services in the U.K. The rollout has been made possible with AWS Wavelength, an optimized AWS infrastructure solution that is specifically designed for supporting mobile edge computing applications on the back of a 5G network.

Impressively, Vodafone is touted as the sole telecommunications company to offer this unique technology to its U.K.-based customers, including software developers. At a time when majority of the service providers are migrating toward automated solutions to demonstrate the feasibility of 5G and edge solutions, the latest move is expected to be highly beneficial for the European telco to address emerging industry challenges and support ultra low-latency requirements for use cases like Industry 4.0, operating on superior bandwidth.

The launch will aid U.K.-based business customers to capitalize on MEC infrastructure for the development and commercialization of innovative applications, which are used across various industry verticals such as transportation and healthcare. Markedly, the deployment of MEC refers to moving services “closer to the edge of the network.” This ensures improved end-user experience as the lag or latency pertaining to data transfer is seamlessly eliminated.

The cost-effective mechanism also helps in securing network operations while harnessing additional resources on an on-demand basis to enhance network capacity. Notably, the combination of MEC, AWS Wavelength and Vodafone 5G network enable customers to leverage the benefits of AWS compute and storage services for next-gen technology like machine learning inference and video analytics. This establishes a yardstick of high performance while paving the path for further advancements of 5G edge solutions.

AWS Wavelength is currently available in South Korea, Tokyo and in 10 cities across the United States on Verizon Communications Inc.’s (VZ - Free Report) 5G network. Interestingly, Vodafone and AWS have been actively working with more than 180 tech companies since November 2020 to exhibit the readiness of MEC infrastructure capabilities as part of the Edge Innovation Programme. Some of them being InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC - Free Report) , Sportable and Aurrigo.

The company continues to conduct pilot runs across a varied range of dynamic areas like remote virtual reality, factory automation and biometric security, to name a few. Markedly, Vodafone will initially provide its edge computing services in London as well as in the cities of Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff and Oxford. Customers based in Scotland and the northern regions of England are expected to avail the service in 2022. Driven by such focused operational execution, the latest initiative is likely to bolster the European telco giant’s business roadmap while promoting its services with an augmented subscriber base globally.

Vodafone currently has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). The stock has gained 16.8% against the industry’s decline of 4.8% in the past year.

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You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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