Pente Networks and Telefonica Unveil Enterprise 5G Mobile Core and Edge Co-Created Solutions for Industrial Strength Use Cases

The advent of 5G networks was heralded as the beginning of a new age, with the fifth-generation network technology promising speeds faster than ever. The anticipation was sadly met with an unexpected slow rollout, thanks to factors like necessary infrastructure upgrades and a lack of killer applications. However, since 5G’s humble beginnings in 2016, the technology is now picking up speed, both figuratively and literally, as experts believe the future of 5G to be a bright one.

Within the accelerated growth of 5G, the enterprise 5G sector is among the fastest growing parts of 5G. As per research done by the Market Statsville Group, the Global 5G Enterprise market size was valued at USD 2.1 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 21.7 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 33.9 percent from 2022 to 2030.

Much of enterprise 5G’s recent, rapid growth can be attributed to the convergence of IoT, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence. These devices and applications are driving a new wave of transformation for industries that require exceptional capabilities, such as firm control over where data is stored and executed, high-performance and secure wireless connectivity, and millisecond-grade latency.

The combination of 5G with hyperscaler local edge computing will finally enable these capabilities and allow businesses to facilitate the digital transformation they seek for years to come. However, for this transformation to become a reality, businesses need to first adopt and leverage 5G. This has led organizations of all industries and sizes to look for 5G services, which has made them some of the most in-demand services out there today.

This week, Telefónica and Pente Networks, a developer of a revolutionary enterprise cellular 4G/5G platform, announced they are working on a managed 5G Cloud service to enable advanced transformation use cases for enterprises. Telefónica and Pente are looking to democratize the delivery of advanced industry transformation through a managed 5G Cloud service using Pente’s packet core solution.

The two companies have developed products together in the past, initially focusing on the industrial sector. Telefónica can combine 5G connectivity with a new generation of hyperscaler OnPremise and Edge platforms as a turnkey solution. With their newest collaboration, enterprise customers can access the full range of hyperscaler services and reap the benefits of the cloud to build, manage, and scale local applications using familiar hyperscaler services and tools, which work in perfect harmony with the Pente connectivity platform.

“The same fully secure and private 4G/5G network supports highly available, high-quality real-time communications, including voice, messaging, and video, to data networking at the edge, important to edge computing and Industry 4.0 solutions,” said David del Val, CEO of Telefónica I+D. “Telefónica can now spin up private networks in hours or days, not weeks or years, and can manage them through a single pane of glass using Pente’s advanced administrative console with its intuitive, IT-friendly experience. An internal team effort that is being developed jointly by Telefónica’s Innovation team and the IoT and Big Data division of Telefónica Tech”.

The service follows a cloud-first approach to create a 5G Cloud service that leverages the full potential of the cloud to automate integration delivery, operations, and integration with services on top – all wrapped with a simple digital view of the service for customers. The result is a more replicable end-to-end solution that shortens the delivery time from weeks to just a few hours. At the same time, this massive automation coupled with a simple user interface designed by Telefónica reduces the cost and complexity barriers for enterprises willing to embrace 5G and Edge computing services.

Current Private 5G Edge implementations are mostly based on a special project approach, requiring much engineering effort to integrate devices, connectivity, cloud, and applications. Telefónica has developed a platform that uses CI/CD tools to automate the integration of the different service components, including the core Pente network. This platform enables the generation of an operational model that maximizes automation in the testing, deployment, and operation of applications on top of the platform.

Pente offers a perfect complement to the company’s “API First” approach, which provides a programmatic integration between the Pente Core and Telefónica’s platform for lifecycle control and to integrate with services on top. Activities cover the deployment of Pente Core on a hyperscaler infrastructure, integration with Telefónica’s platform, and end-to-end service automation.

 “5G and Edge are bringing a new wave of transformation, in the same way as mobile broadband and the cloud did some years ago,” del Val explained. “Telefonica is in the perfect position to create services combining 5G Connectivity, cloud edge, business applications, and devices. By using cloud-native principles, we have transformed how the services are delivered to generate turnkey services,” added del Val. “Now we can spin up private networks connected to apps on the cloud edge in hours or days, not weeks or months, and abstract most of the underlying operational complexity of current 5G networks. This will enable us to reach more client segments and industries in the coming years.”

Originally published on 5G Evolution World

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