Partnerships Are Key for Rural Telecom Operators in Burgeoning Edge Computing Market

For rural operators looking to take advantage of edge computing, partnerships will be key to their success. Taking a “build it and they will come” approach may not be the right strategy. Instead, the opportunity could be in partnering with “hyperscalers” (massive companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon) that are looking to deploy edge computing equipment in rural America but don’t have the local resources/ capabilities to do so. Key information from this report includes: 

• Edge computing is distributed information technology architecture where data is stored and/or processed at locations close to where the applications are being used.
• Edge computing has been on the come for several years, but the growth in machine learning and AI technologies are enabling new applications that depend on edge computing.
• The global edge computing market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 37.3% between 2022 and 2031, according to Transparency Market Research.
• The advantage of edge computing is two-fold: cost and latency. New applications need ultra-low latency network performance to operate properly, and it might be cheaper to store and process data in a more decentralized fashion versus in the cloud.
• For rural telecom operators, edge computing offers some new business opportunities. But partnerships will be key – a “build it and they will come” approach is probably not the right strategy.