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The Future of Multi-Access Edge Computing: Decision-Makers’ Spending Priorities and Growth Opportunities, 2026
Highlights from the Annual Frost & Sullivan Global IT Decision-Makers (ITDM) Survey
06-Feb-2026
Global
Customer Research
KC18-01-00-00-00
IT_2026_34341
Frost & Sullivan's annual survey of IT and business decision-makers, now in its 16th year, aims to understand their perceptions, decisions, and purchasing behaviors. In 2024, Frost & Sullivan introduced a new set of questions focused on multi-access edge computing (MEC) to the yearly survey, and in 2025, it is possible to contrast results for 2024 and 2025. The survey aims to understand respondents’ evolving organizational priorities and the extent to which technologies help them achieve their business objectives.
The findings provide insights into mobile private network and MEC adoption, including the status of implementation, current and future infrastructure, challenges and needs, investment priorities, use cases, latency requirements, benefits by region, industry, and company size, as well as the choice of IT vendors and cloud providers for MEC hardware procurements.
According to respondents, AI has now surpassed the cloud as the most important aspect of digital transformation. As such, companies continue to build hybrid, multi-cloud, and distributed environments to support AI deployments that meet business goals, such as revenue growth, improved customer experience, and operational efficiency. MEC is a cornerstone of enabling Edge AI across industries such as manufacturing, mining, oil and gas, and ports and logistics.
The survey results offer enterprises, IT vendors, service providers, cloud providers, and telecom companies a glimpse into the future of the MEC market.
Author: Renato Pasquini
Research Objectives and Methodology
Respondent Profile
Revenue Growth and CX Improvement are the Top Business Objectives
Infrastructure Requirements on Private Networks with IoT
Latency Requirements
Current Status of MEC Implementation
Uses Cases Deployed in MEC Solutions
Benefits of MEC Implementation
MEC Challenges
Geographically Dispersed Assets and Number of Locations Required for Edge Computing
Use of Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) and Data Processing and Storage at the Edge
Preference for Edge Hardware Vendors in Procurements
Spending on Private Networks and MEC Solutions
MEC Hardware as an Infrastructure Requirement by Sector
Latency Requirements by Sector
Current Status of MEC Implementation by Sector
MEC Challenges by Sector
Geographically Dispersed Assets by Sector
Use of SD-WAN by Sector
MEC Hardware as an Infrastructure Requirement by Region
Latency Requirements by Region
Current Status of MEC Implementation by Region
MEC Challenges by Region
Geographically Dispersed Assets by Region
Use of SD-WAN by Region
Analysis by Company Size
MEC Hardware as an Infrastructure Requirement by Company Size
Latency Requirements by Company Size
Current Status of MEC Implementation by Company Size
MEC Challenges by Company Size
Geographically Dispersed Assets by Company Size
Use of SD-WAN by Company Size
The Last Word
Key Findings
Growth Opportunities Fuel the Growth Pipeline Engine™
Why Is It Increasingly Difficult to Grow?
The Strategic Imperative 8™
Benefits and Impacts of Growth Opportunities
Next Steps
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