It is the first time an established mobile operator has moved its core network to the public cloud – and a breakthrough for AWS in Europe
Reuters reports that Telefonica Germany will move 1 million 5G customers onto AWS’ cloud later this month. It describes AWS’ action as “a bold move by the US online retailer to break into the global telecoms market”. No financial details about the arrangement have been disclosed.
The report adds, “While some telecom networks have moved IT and other non-core operations to the public cloud, the move by the subsidiary of Spanish group Telefonica is a global first where an existing mobile operator is switching its core network to a public cloud”.
Telefonica Germany has 45 million customers.
Rao’s roadmap
Mallik Rao, CTIO at Telefonica Germany (which operates under the O2 Telefonica brand), is quoted by Reuters saying, “I want to see it working for at least one to two quarters and have a roadmap to move at least 30-40% of my customer base by 2025-2026”.
An interview with FutureNet World earlier this year shows how Rao has always seen cloud as the way to compete against the incumbent Deutsche Telekom and other rivals in Germany since he took up his post in 2019.
AWS and O2 Telefonica did not disclose financial details of the deal. The move to public cloud is intended to reduce operating costs, make scaling easier and enable repairs and maintenance without disrupting services.
Role for Nokia
The US’ DISH Networks is unique in that it built its core mobile network from scratch on AWS in 2021. Nokia worked with DISH and AWS on that implementation, and will provide software to help Telefonica Germany with its core network deployment on AWS’ cloud.
This is a salve for Nokia which lost out to Ericsson when AT&T awarded the Swedish vendor a contract worth up to $14 billion at the end of last year, replacing Nokia. Telefonica Germany originally worked with Ericsson and AWS before switching to Nokia to work with the cloudco.