AWS unveils expanded private networks offering, managed network hosting

• AWS girds its loins for MWC23
• It has announced two new offerings for the telecom sector
• A private wireless network offering in collaboration with Tier 1 operators
• And a managed service for constructing and running cloud-based networks that uses telco lingo and specifications

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has expanded its portfolio of offerings for the telecom operator sector with the launch of a telco-friendly managed service for network deployment and management and a private wireless partnership programme that has already attracted the likes of Deutsche Telekom, KDDI, Orange, T-Mobile and Telefonica.

Like its hyperscaler rivals, AWS is desperate to partner with, and win business from, the global telecom operator community. It is already pitching products and services, such as AWS Private 5G, AWS Wavelength, AWS Cloud WAN and AWS Outposts (for edge deployments), and already has multiple relationships with operators.

Now it is looking to address one of the most persistent challenges in the industry, clear partner and customer communications, and make further headway in one of the most promising enterprise-focused markets, private wireless networks. 

For the private wireless networks sector, the hyperscaler has launched Integrated Private Wireless on AWS, which combines its infrastructure and services with the 4G and 5G networks of its telco partners, as well as the input from more than 100,000 partners in 150 countries (as and when required) to make the process of defining, deploying and running a private mobile network more quickly and easily. 

Enterprises can use the Integrated Private Wireless on AWS portal to view the private wireless offerings from participating telcos, and then use the portal to contact its chosen telco, which will “design, deliver, operate, and support the private wireless solution,” stated AWS in this blog. 

Antje Williams, senior VP of 5G Campus Networks at Deutsche Telekom, noted that the German operator already has 50 Deutsche Telekom Campus Networks customers in Greece, Germany, Czech, Slovak, Austria, Croatia, and Hungary, and has learned a lot from working closely with them. “Based on this customer feedback, we saw an opportunity to further innovate and scale our campus network solutions by working with AWS. The collaboration enables us to deliver even more value,” she noted. 

The managed service is called AWS Telco Network Builder and, like the Deutsche Telekom and Google Cloud proof of concept announced earlier this week, the focus here is to make deployments of telecom functions on a cloud platform quicker, easier and more efficient by using common terminology and languages. For example, AWS says Telco Network Builder supports multiple specifications developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), including three sets of network functions virtualisation (NFV) specs – ETSI SOL001, ETSI SOL005 and ETSI SOL007.

According to AWS, it allows telecom companies to use their “familiar telecom industry standard language to describe the details of their network,” such as connection points, networking requirements, compute needs and geographical distribution, in a cloud-based template. “AWS Telco Network Builder translates the template into a cloud-based network architecture and provisions the necessary AWS infrastructure, shortening the deployment of an operational, cloud-configured telco network from days to hours,” boasted the hyperscaler, which says German operator O2 Telefónica (aka Telefónica Deutschland) is one of the companies already exploring its potential. 

“The telecom industry is undergoing a transformation as CSPs navigate building their telco networks in the cloud,” noted Jan Hofmeyr, vice president of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). “Some of the biggest challenges CSPs face as they look to migrate include manually configuring and then managing these complex networks, which impedes growth and stifles innovation… AWS Telco Network Builder removes the burden of translating a customer’s desired telco network into a cloud architecture, empowering them to easily modernise and quickly scale to meet demand while freeing time and capital,” he added.

Other companies already seeking to develop business opportunities based on AWS Telco Network Builder include Amdocs, Cloudify, Infosys and Mavenir. For more on the managed service, see this press release and this blog. 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV