SK Telecom (SKT) forged a partnership with HP Enterprise (HPE) to jointly develop and market a 5G mobile edge computing (MEC) platform, first targeting operators in Southeast Asia.

It forged an agreement with HPE’s Korea and APAC units to establish an MEC consortium: SKT will supply the software and HPE hardware along with local sales and maintenance.

In a statement, SKT said the group is in discussions with operators in Malaysia and Thailand, and later will target companies in North America and Europe.

SKT CTO Kim Yoon said the partnership “will spur the expansion of the global 5G MEC ecosystem”.

Narinder Kapoor, CEO of HPE APAC, said it expects “this cooperation will create an ecosystem in which Asian operators can launch a variety of MWC services” and accelerate digital transformation.

SKT said it is developing an MEC-based cloud business with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft.