With the caveat that it is unclear how many respondents participated, a survey published by BPI Network suggests nearly-universal deployment of mobile edge clouds for 5G networks, though it is unclear what specific roles are envisioned by mobile operators.
“Virtually all respondents (99 percent) say mobile edge clouds will be either very important (38 percent) or important (61 percent) to realizing the promise of 5G,” the study says. “In fact, some 65 percent of survey respondents say their companies plan to deploy mobile edge clouds on their networks within 18 months.”
The actual question asked appears to be “How do you view mobile edge clouds for more localized data hosting and processing to realize the promise of 5G?” The specific role envisioned by the mobile operator was not the point of the question, but only the role of edge computing as a value for 5G networks.
This is a bit of a self-fulfilling survey prophecy. Since every overview of 5G emphasizes the three-fold value of extremely-high bandwidth; massive machine communications and critical machine communication (low latency use cases requiring edge computing), it is unsurprising in the extreme that edge computing, ultra-low latency or mobile edge computing show up very high and very frequently in stated values of 5G.
The bigger questions revolve around roles in the cloud computing and edge computing ecosystem, and what roles (and revenue) mobile operators can assume, beyond supplying connections. This remains an open question, but there already are signs the main role for a mobile operator is as a supplier of mobile or wireless connections, not the edge computing function itself.
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