There is much debate in the industry on the topic of telco edge computing, but little clarity for players within the telecom industry and potential customers on how much capacity will be available. In this report, we provide insights from our annual industry survey on the state of network edge, including the key triggers for deployments.

Edging closer to ubiquitous distributed compute

Edge computing comprises a spectrum of locations and technologies that are designed to bring processing power closer to the end device and source of data, outside of a central data centre or cloud.

This survey focuses on network edge data centres – i.e. edge data centres that are deployed within an operator’s network and are typically owned by the operator as well.

Network edge is part of the edge continuum

The survey has discovered that the industrial and the media and entertainment sectors remain the earliest adopters of network edge computing. Compared to last year, a higher percentage of respondents (a 3% increase) view media and entertainment as the leading adopters, while the industrial sector has declined by 5%, despite remaining the top adopter overall. The public sector (7%) and financial services (5%) have also emerged as new industries beginning to adopt telco edge computing.

Industrials and media industries remain the most important verticals

Furthermore, the survey conducted by STL Partners has examined a number of other topics including use cases, monetisation, hardware vendors, regulation, the role of the graphics processing unit (GPU) and more.

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Related research

• • Network edge data centre forecast: The rise of the non-telco
  • Network edge capacity forecast: The role of hyperscalers
  • AWS, Azure and Google Cloud: Who’s got the edge?
  • Hyperscalers in the telco vertical: Strategies and successes

Tilly Gilbert

Tilly Gilbert

Director, Consulting & Edge Practice Lead

As a Director in STL's consulting business Tilly has more than five years of experience leading growth projects for technology and telecoms firms. She heads up our research and consulting practice focused on edge and cloud computing and was nominated for Edge Computing Woman of the Year in 2022. Tilly has a BA from Oxford University and an MA from the University of Pennsylvania.