Bell Canada boards the Google Cloud train

• Canadian national operator strikes strategic partnership with public cloud giant
• Bell Canada will shift workloads onto Google Cloud’s platform
• Partners will combine operator’s 5G with Google Anthos for service delivery

In what is becoming an increasingly common occurrence, another major national telco has forged a significant relationship with a public cloud giant to tap into the latter’s functionality and distributed platform prowess, with the names in the frame this time being Bell Canada and Google Cloud. 

And once again, the hyperscaler’s multicloud platform, Google Anthos, features as a critical component: It’s becoming more than just a cult hit in the telecoms world. (See Google’s Anthos is winning telco buy-in.)

Bell Canada says its relationship with Google Cloud will enable it to “drive operational efficiencies, increase network automation, and deliver richer customer experiences” through a number of initiatives, namely: Shifting multiple workloads from private systems to its partner’s platforms; leveraging “Google Cloud’s expertise in AI and big data to gain unique insights through real-time network data analytics that will enhance the customer experience, improve service assurance, and assist with network capacity planning; and combining the operator’s 5G connectivity with Anthos-hosted applications for an experience that “can respond faster and handle greater volumes of data than previous generations of wireless technology.” 

They even squeezed a sustainability angle from the relationship, boasting that the collaboration would help the operator hit its target of achieving carbon neutral operations by 2025.

And this is just the start: The partners say they will “collaborate throughout the next decade on new innovations, including cloud solutions for enterprise customers and consumers powered by Google edge solutions, and enhanced customer service through automation and AI. In addition, the two companies will look at new ways to expand Bell’s existing partnership with Google to evolve the network experience and introduction of next-generation services across residential, mobile, and more.”

And like many operators, Bell Canada is not monogamous in its public cloud relationships: Only weeks ago it announced it is teaming up with Amazon Web Services (AWS) for telco edge service developments and will integrate AWS Wavelength Zones into its 5G network in an effort to encourage developers to create new services, particularly low-latency applications that can take advantage of edge compute assets and 5G connectivity. (See Bell rings network changes with AWS.)

For Google Cloud, it’s another feather in its telco cap: To find out more about how Google Cloud is working with network operators and how it feels it can bring value to the market, see this interview with Kevin Shatzkamer, Digital Transformation Officer for Telecom at Google Cloud, and this interview with George Nazi, Google Cloud's Global VP for Telecom, Media,  Entertainment & Gaming Industry Solutions. 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV