BT unveils partnership with AWS in boost to UK businesses

BT has announced a multi-million-pound investment to bring 5G and 4G mobile edge computing services to UK business customers in collaboration with AWS. 

The work combines AWS' cloud expertise with BT’s market-leading 5G and 4G infrastructure. 

EE’s national mobile network (part of the BT Group) with AWS Wavelength will bring the power of AWS to the network edge for more business and public sector customers across the UK – opening up faster, secure and high-bandwidth connectivity on the move for sectors and situations including policing, crowd management, healthcare and security. 

The effort forms part of BT’s investment in its existing mobile networks to enable 5G-connected infrastructure as a service via AWS Wavelength. 

BT ‘accelerating innovation across industries’

BT’s groundbreaking new investment involves switching on a new AWS Wavelength Zone in Manchester, which will facilitate trials for eligible businesses and public sector organisations within a 62-mile radius. This means it will reach northern cities including Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield. 

Following a planned national rollout, the service will be available to all BT business customers in the UK, from small businesses to large enterprise and public sector organisations.

Alex Tempest, Managing Director for the BT Wholesale division which has worked alongside AWS on the Manchester trials, said: “As we continue to build best-in-class 5G infrastructure for the UK, launching the AWS Wavelength service for our business and wholesale customers is a hugely important step on our journey – bringing the power of the cloud to the UK’s best network. 

“It’s set to unlock use cases like Internet of Things (IoT) cameras to help first responders keep communities safe: a real-life example of using tech to connect for good.

“By building cloud edge services into our 5G and 4G EE network, we can accelerate innovation across industries, and bring fast, secure data processing closer to where our customers need it most.

“Ultimately, we want to give businesses and public sector organisations all the power of edge computing, wherever they are.”

How does the technology work? 

AWS Wavelength embeds AWS compute and storage services within 5G and 4G networks, providing mobile edge computing infrastructure for ultra-low-latency applications.

Hosting services directly at the edge of EE’s UK network reduces lag, as application traffic can reach application servers running in the AWS Wavelength Zone without leaving BT’s network. 

This opens up mobile edge computing infrastructure for businesses to develop, deploy, and scale mobile IoT applications over BT’s existing 5G network securely.

It is hoped the collaboration will enable high-speed, latency-sensitive and intensive 5G connectivity for BT customers looking to benefit from high-bandwidth IoT use cases while out in the field. 

This includes autonomous vehicles, cameras for policing and other public services to help protect communities, live media production for outside broadcast, smart industrial robots and use in community healthcare.