Verizon takes cautious cloud approach

Ed Chan, Verizon’s chief network engineering officer, told the financial analysts at Cowen that the operator has no immediate plans to shift its core network operations into the cloud like AT&T and Dish Network plan to do.

However, he said Verizon will continue to look for ways to team with cloud computing providers. For example, Verizon has extensive deals with Amazon and Microsoft for edge computing – but those agreements don’t cover Verizon’s core network operations.

Chan’s comments on the cloud are noteworthy considering Verizon is spending an extra $10 billion over the next three years to upgrade its 5G network with C-band spectrum. And that spending is in addition to the roughly $50 billion Verizon paid for C-band spectrum licenses.

Chan made his comments to the Cowen analysts as part of the firm’s 7th Annual Cowen Communications Infrastructure Summit. In their summary of Chan’s comments about the cloud, the analysts wrote that he “sees some benefits but it has its limits and does not seem likely to follow” AT&T and Dish.

“While the idea is to get control and flexibility in managing the network (AT&T migrating its core functions, likely subscriber management and the ability to network slice), much of the core network is COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) equipment, and the core is tightly tied to OSS/BSS (care/billing) systems, thus Verizon believes it would be difficult to migrate to a cloud platform,” the analysts wrote of Chan’s comments on the matter.

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