Growth Opportunities for Telecommunications Companies in Private Multi-access Edge Computing, 2024 2029

Revenue Forecast

The private multi-access edge computing (MEC) market revenue estimate for the base year 2023 is $339.1 million, with a CAGR of 64.9% for the study period from 2023 to 2029.

The Impact of the Top 3 Strategic Imperatives on the Private Multi-access Edge Computing Industry

Disruptive Technologies

• Why: Mission-critical applications require lower latency than what traditional cellular networks and centralized computing power in remote data centers can offer.

  5G technology offers lower latency and higher capacity. Together with multi-access edge computing (MEC), it brings computing power close to customers, enabling new applications and experiences.

  Private multi-access edge computing, with its low latency and data processing power at the network's edge, offers an ideal opportunity for the integration of generative AI.

• Frost Perspective: Frost & Sullivan research conducted in Q4 2023 indicates that approximately 20% of enterprises considering edge computing to be their top technology investment priority over the next 12 months. In 2023, most multi-access edge computing trials used 5G deployments, while the 2019–2022 period saw implementations use 4G.

  In the next 5 years, edge computing, in conjunction with 5G connectivity and AI, is expected to revolutionize the way businesses operate and consume services, transform operational processes, and drive innovation in the telecom industry's edge computing landscape.

Innovative Business Models

• Why: Multi-access Edge Computing and 5G are opportunities for telecommunications companies (telcos) to launch innovative offerings and enable an ecosystem to flourish in the business-to-business (B2B) segment of telecom service providers using the platform.
• Frost Perspective: Private MEC offers telcos a chance to create innovative B2B services like data monetization through edge-based IoT, analytics, and AI. This high-growth market, projected to reach $16–28 billion by 2025, is driven by the need for real-time data processing and network resilience for businesses.

Industry Convergence

• Why: Telcos cannot implement and run multi-access edge computing alone. They must establish partnerships and an application ecosystem to seize growth opportunities in the MEC space.

  Telcos have started partnering with cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure (MS Azure), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and IBM Cloud to boost the ecosystem and propel exponential growth.
• Frost Perspective: By partnering with cloud providers, in the next 2 to 3 years, telcos will be able to offer a range of cloud services in the MEC space to capture revenue, including infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and network-as-a-service (NaaS). This could involve directly providing these services or reselling them from established cloud providers.

Scope of Analysis

• The global private multi-access edge computing industry evolved quickly in 2023 and the first half of 2024, with more telcos and cloud providers establishing strategic partnerships and commercializing offerings. For instance, in March 2024, Softbank announced a private 5G+MEC offering.
• Enterprises are prioritizing edge computing to reduce network latency, lower operational expenses, process data in real time, and save bandwidth.
• Telcos have been working to simplify their offering, make it more affordable, and drive more adoption of private MEC.
• It excludes revenue from other market participants, such as cloud providers and hardware manufacturers.
• The segmentation into hardware reselling, software, and services provides insight into which areas telcos are expected to generate the most revenue in Private Multi-Access Edge Computing.
• Hardware Reselling: This category includes revenue generated by telcos from the resale of hardware components necessary for private multi-access edge computing deployments, such as servers, storage devices, networking equipment, and other infrastructure elements.
• Software: This category includes revenue generated by telcos from the provision of software solutions tailored for private multi-access edge computing environments, including edge computing platforms, management software, and security solutions.
• Services: The services category encompasses revenue generated from various service offerings related to private MEC, including consulting, deployment, integration, support, managed services, and other professional services provided by telcos to assist customers in implementing and managing private MEC solutions.

This space influences growth opportunities in different areas for both consumer MEC and enterprise MEC use cases, where low-latency connectivity requirements are essential for applications and user experience.

Growth Environment

• Edge computing is evolving rapidly in wireless networks. multi-access edge computing is the term telcos use for their commercial edge computing offerings in wireless networks. They partner with cloud providers such as AWS, MS Azure, Google Cloud, and IBM Cloud to improve the performance of mission-critical applications in wireless networks and enable new applications.
• Most operators have designed their multi-access edge computing offerings for private implementations, providing the necessary infrastructure on-premises for smart factories, mining facilities, ports, and other industrial environments. Some have deployed smaller data centers closer to customers and application demand at the 5G public network edge to serve use cases such as gaming and connected cars.
• In 2023 and 2024, many private MEC implementations used 5G technology, while until 2023 most implementations used 4G. The 5G radio bolsters minimum latency, high bandwidth (10 Gbps peak speed), dedicated bandwidth (with network slicing), and high density (1.0 million/km2 connections).
• Private multi-access edge computing is poised for significant growth, driven by a confluence of technological advancements and evolving industry demands. This includes the growth of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the rise of industrial automation, the growing sophistication of cyberattacks (which underscores the need for robust security solutions), increasing government regulations and data privacy concerns, and the growing cloud adoption and edge computing convergence.

Private Multi-access Edge Computing Applications Across Industries

As multi-access edge computing technology continues to evolve, MEC can be used to improve efficiency and productivity in traditional industries. Multi-access edge computing offerings can include the following:

• Distributed energy resource management, smart grids, grid backhaul and backbone, grid access communication, and remote site monitoring
• Real-time delivery of mobile medical data sets, cloud robotics for assisted living or rehabilitation, remote health monitoring, and precision telerobotics surgery
• Predictive maintenance of machines, remote quality inspection with high-resolution images, and collaborative robots
• AR support in agriculture for eLearning and expert advice in remote areas, predictive maintenance of farming equipment using sensor data, and livestock tracking
• Fusion of the virtual and physical worlds for personalized shopping experiences and preferences based on customer location

Emerging applications and use cases suitable for multi-access edge computing because of the volume/frequency of data transmission to the server include:

• Manufacturing 4.0/robotics
• Autonomous vehicles and connected cars
• Critical wireless health and surgery telementoring
• Smart homes, buildings, and cities
• IoT/AI/ML inferencing
• Orchestrated drones
• UHD live broadcasting and streaming
• 5G gaming and game streaming
• AR/VR

Growth Drivers

The increasing adoption of 5G networks unlocks the full potential of private multi-access edge computing, as it provides the ideal foundation for real-time applications and secure data transmission at the network edge. This synergy empowers private MEC to deliver on its promise of near-instantaneous processing and control.

Data-driven companies and governments require a significant data stream for real-time analytics.

Growing IoT adoption requires real-time data processing and local analytics, resulting in high demand for private multi-access edge computing infrastructure.

Edge infrastructure implementation can lower operational expenses (lower traffic in the backhaul and core) and help telcos offer a better customer experience.

Increasing cloud adoption creates fertile ground for private multi-access edge computing expansion by enabling efficient workload orchestration between the cloud and the edge, cost-effective deployment through cloud-based scalability, enhanced data management and analytics capabilities, and simplified management through standardized cloud-based tools.

Enterprises require network and application resiliency that distributed computing capabilities can achieve.

Key Private Multi-access Edge Computing Competitors

These are key telcos providing multi-access edge computing infrastructure closer to customers, in addition to services and solutions.

• América Móvil
• AT&T
• Bharti Airtel
• Bell Canada
• Bouygues Telecom
• BT Wholesale
• CK Hutchison
• China Mobile
• China Telecom
• China Unicom
• Deutsche Telecom
• Dish Network
• EE
• Etisalat
• KDDI
• KPN
• KT Corp
• LG U+
• MEO Portugal
• NOS Portugal
• NTT DoCoMo
• Orange
• Optus
• PCCW Global
• Proximus
• Reliance Jio
• Rogers
• SFR
• Singtel
• SK Telecom
• Softbank
• Swisscom
• Telefónica
• Telenor
• Telkomsel
• Telia
• Telstra
• Telus
• TIM
• T-Mobile US
• Verizon
• Vodafone