Edge computing: Five viable telco business models

Executive Briefing Service, Edge Insights

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With Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC), telcos can move workloads and applications closer to customers, potentially enhancing experiences and enabling a plethora of new use cases. But with competition looming from other players, telcos need to start commercialising MEC. We have identified and modelled five viable telco business models.

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This report has been produced independently by STL Partners, in co-operation with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Intel.

Introduction

The idea behind Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) is to make compute and storage capabilities available to customers at the edge of communications networks. This will mean that workloads and applications are closer to customers, potentially enhancing experiences and enabling new services and offers. As we have discussed in our recent report, there is much excitement within telcos around this concept:

  • MEC promises to enable a plethora of vertical and horizontal use cases (e.g. leveraging lowlatency) implying significant commercial opportunities. This is critical as the whole industry is trying to uncover new sources of revenue, ideally where operators may be able to build a sustainable advantage.
  • MEC should also theoretically fit with telcos’ 5G and SDN/NFV deployments, which will run certain virtualised network functions in a distributed way, including at the edge of networks. In turn, MEC potentially benefits from the capabilities of a virtualised network to extract the full potential of distributed computing.

Figure 1: Defining MEC

Source: STL Partners

However, despite the excitement around the potentially transformative impact of MEC on telcos,viable commercial models that leverage MEC are still unclear and undefined. As an added complication, a diverse ecosystem around edge computing is emerging – of which telcos’ MEC is only one part.

From this, the following key questions emerge:

  • Which business models will allow telcos to realise the various potential MEC use cases in a commercially viable way?
  • What are the right MEC business models for which telco?
  • What is needed for success? What are the challenges?

Contents:

  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • The emerging edge computing ecosystem
  • Telcos’ MEC opportunity
  • Hyperscale cloud providers are an added complication for telcos
  • How should telcos position themselves?
  • 5 telco business models for MEC
  • Business model 1: Dedicated edge hosting
  • Business model 2: Edge IaaS/PaaS/NaaS
  • Business model 3: Systems integration
  • Business model 4: B2B2X solutions
  • Business model 5: End-to-end consumer retail applications
  • Mapping use cases to business models
  • Some business models will require a long-term view on the investment
  • Which business models are right for which operator and which operator division?
  • Conclusion

Figures:

  • Figure 1: Defining MEC
  • Figure 2: MEC potential benefits
  • Figure 3: Microsoft’s new mantra – “Intelligent Cloud, Intelligent Edge”
  • Figure 4: STL Partners has identified 5 telco business models for MEC
  • Figure 5: The dedicated edge hosting value
  • Figure 6: Quantified example – Dedicated edge hosting
  • Figure 7: The Edge IaaS/PaaS/NaaS value chain
  • Figure 8: Quantified example – Edge IaaS/PaaS/NaaS
  • Figure 9: The SI value chain
  • Figure 10: Quantified example – Systems integration
  • Figure 11: The B2B2X solutions value chain
  • Figure 12: Quantified example – B2B2x solutions
  • Figure 13: Graphical representation of the end-to-end consumer retail applications business model
  • Figure 14: Quantified example – End-to-end consumer retail applications
  • Figure 15: Mapping MEC business models to possible use cases
  • Figure 16: High IRR correlates with low terminal value
  • Figure 17: Telcos need patience for edge-enabled consumer applications to become profitable (breakeven only in year 5)
  • Figure 18: The characteristics and skills required of the MEC operator depend on the business models

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