Telefonica has embarked on a significant initiative to roll out Edge Computing services for businesses in Spain. By activating commercial services in five key cities – Madrid, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao, and A Coruña – the company aims to leverage these locations’ productive ecosystems.
The project is a move towards a transformative digital era, offering open and interconnected infrastructures with vast computing and storage capacities. Such setups promise to reduce latency and enhance efficiency, marking a stride towards a new digital transformation era for various sectors, including industry and society.
Telefonica’s ambitious plan envisions 17 nodes in the first phase of the roll-out this year. Currently, 12 nodes are operational, including the aforementioned cities and seven more in Madrid (second node), Barcelona, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Valladolid, Terrassa, and Merida. Plans are underway to introduce additional nodes in Zaragoza, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Gijón, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and Santiago de Compostela. By 2026, the complete deployment of 17 nodes will ensure broader coverage, dovetailing with the company’s advanced fixed (FTTH fiber) and mobile (5G Stand Alone) technology.
A notable partnership with CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles) highlighted the potential of integrating Edge and 5G SA capabilities. This collaboration has facilitated launching the first European B2B pilot within the railway sector, applying Edge capabilities for real-time interior perception solutions without additional processing nodes in each car.
Telefónica’s Edge services, based on the innovative Telefónica Tech Cloud Platform (TTCP), target specific market needs. The company offers two tailored service levels: Edge Básico and Smart Edge. Edge Básico emphasizes capillarity and data sovereignty, assuring data control under the relevant local regulatory frameworks. It optimizes data flow, minimizing network hops, ensuring business continuity and communication resilience.
The advanced tier, Smart Edge, introduces mobility and dynamism, facilitating real-time applications at reduced latency. It permits application operations on the move or in distributed settings, merging AI processes with business activities. Users can navigate through the chosen nodes via FTTH or 5G as per their preferences, supported by quality of service (QoS) and private 5G access points.
Telefonica’s Edge infrastructure, supported by a robust capillary network, ensures potential sectors like Industry 4.0, retail, logistics, and more are well-equipped for advancements. These nodes, acting as compact, low-latency data centers, foster data sovereignty by maintaining information processing close to its source, minimizing external dependencies.
This initiative aligns with the European Union’s endeavors to bolster the continent’s digital capabilities. Telefónica’s proposal, backed by the EU and government initiatives, seeks to reduce dependence on overseas data service providers by promoting a decentralized, multi-provider model that promises technological autonomy for Europe.
Attendees at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) can explore these developments firsthand during “Immediate Future: Leading the Low-Latency 5G Edge” in Barcelona. This session will delve into the pioneering efforts, setting a new precedent for digital transformation across the telecommunications landscape.
