O2 Telefónica Germany has selected AWS to expand its 5G core network after successfully deploying its 5G standalone (SA) core on AWS in July 2024.
This multi-year agreement, announced at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2025, will see O2 Telefónica extend its 5G core by deploying the data plane within its data centers using AWS Outposts racks, optimizing network-intensive workloads while ensuring low latency and high throughput. Additionally, the telco will begin rolling out IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) voice services on AWS Graviton processors later this year.
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The telco will also integrate AWS’s analytics and AI-powered solutions, including Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus, Amazon Managed Grafana, Amazon Athena, and Amazon SageMaker, to optimize network operations and predictive maintenance.
Mallik Rao, Chief Technology and Enterprise Officer at O2 Telefónica, explained, “The start of our 5G cloud core marks a decisive step in transforming our network architecture. We are proud to have the first fully cloud-native 5G core network deployed on AWS, already serving a million subscribers. The new AWS Outposts racks align with our vision for the future network.”
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In a parallel move, O2 Telefónica is expanding its partnership with Google Cloud and Nokia to accelerate cloud transformation. Building on previous collaborations in mobile charging solutions, the telco is considering migrating additional 5G functions, such as Nokia’s Policy Control Functions, to Google Cloud.
“This work with Google Cloud and Nokia is a significant step in O2 Telefónica’s technology transformation. We have already gained valuable experience with Google Cloud and are now extending this collaboration. By embracing cloud-native solutions, we are modernizing our network to deliver the next generation of 5G services to our customers,” Rao added.
O2 Telefónica launched its 5G Plus Standalone network in October 2023, building on its earlier non-standalone (NSA) 5G deployment, which relied partially on its LTE/4G core. Its 5G SA network currently operates on the 700 MHz, 1.8 GHz, and 3.6 GHz frequency bands, and is expected to achieve full nationwide coverage in Germany by the end of 2025.
