INTERVIEW: Jason Hoffman, president and CEO of MobiledgeX (pictured), a Deutsche Telekom subsidiary, tipped commercial edge compute deployments to take off in 2020, giving operators access to new revenue streams.

Hoffman told Mobile World Live the company serves application and device developers, using its relationships with operators to help them deploy new use cases at the network edge, covering multiple countries and operators.

The company agreed partnerships with more than a dozen operators across the globe, opening “previously unexposed infrastructure assets” at the network edge including core, access and transport sites.

So far, the company has enjoyed more success in Europe than the US, where a greater number of tower operating companies poses some challenges around “who actually owns” the sites and where responsibility for upgrading equipment lies.

He explained the benefits of mobile edge computing apply equally to tower companies as operators which still control their own sites, noting the technology had enabled a fresh bout of innovation from third-party players, and brought in new devices (such as drones and industrial robotics), use cases and revenue streams to the network.

The executive also discussed MobiledgeX’s future plans, a major focus on converting trials into commercial launches.

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