Japan’s NTT and European satellite telecoms firm SES have announced a multi-year partnership to use SES satellites to deliver NTT’s Edge as a Service to enterprise customers. The two companies will jointly go to market with a fully managed Edge and Private 5G solution including expanded coverage through satellite.

The agreement brings together NTT’s networking and enterprise managed services with SES’s satellite capabilities to provide enterprise connectivity that meets surges in demand and networking services beyond the reach of fixed terrestrial networks. The offering combines NTT’s fully managed Private 5G and Edge Compute with SES’s second-generation medium earth orbit communications system – O3b mPOWER – to provide expanded connectivity.

The solution is intended for companies operating in regions where terrestrial networks are lacking and enterprises need high-performance connectivity. The combination of Private 5G networks and satellite technology is aimed particularly at industries in energy, mining, maritime, manufacturing and industrial segments.

The joint solution will deliver coverage to over 190 countries with public-private roaming. In addition to NTT’s Private 5G and Edge Compute capabilities, NTT will also provide use-case consulting and design, application development, system integration, implementation, and managed services, while SES will provide end-to-end satellite networks via O3b mPOWER that will be integrated with NTT’s offering.

NTT’s Edge-as-a-Service offering includes IoT, Edge Compute, and Private 5G connectivity delivered across its global footprint.

“We are excited to embark on this journey with SES, combining our collective expertise to help businesses digitally transform and scale,” said Miriam Murphy, CEO Europe at NTT Ltd. “As organisations grapple with the challenges of a rapidly changing world, it is now more important than ever to leverage the power of technology to drive growth and innovation.”

“Private 5G is a transformative power that enables enterprises to build upon existing network infrastructure and deliver reliable, high bandwidth, and low latency connections for multiple use cases operating on a single Private 5G network,” said Olivier Posty, Country Managing Director Luxembourg, NTT Ltd. Posty adds, “As our customers continue to innovate, network partners with the right skills and expertise will be critical to success in today’s competitive market. NTT’s robust Private 5G network-as-a-service full stack solution, delivered on-premises, at the edge, or as a cloud service, is complemented by NTT’s 24/7 remote monitoring services and a CIO self-service portal, ensuring that NTT’s full stack of managed Edge Compute services delivers real-time actionable intelligence to drive processing efficiency and accelerate business performance.”

“This partnership between NTT and SES is an industry-first milestone at the whole industry level, combining massive amounts of expertise that both companies are bringing in each field, and the joint value proposition is ahead of the curve in terms of added value that will be provided to customers. This will open great opportunities also in countries where 5G spectrum is not yet ready, enabling the transformation of companies at a global scale.” Alejandro Cadenas, Associate Vice President of EMEA Telco Mobility Research, IDC.

According to John-Paul Hemingway, Chief Strategy Officer at SES, the partnership is one of its kind as both companies jointly provide comprehensive and resilient connectivity solutions for customers around the world. “In addition to its predictable low latency capabilities, O3b mPOWER’s best throughput and full flexibility on asymmetric or symmetric services will result in the seamless integration and extension of terrestrial and satellite networks, enabling our customers to unlock the full potential of emerging technologies like 5G, IoT, and cloud computing, and drive digital transformation across industries,” he said.