VMware and NTT are tightening their working relationship to provide managed edge and private 5G services targeted at those rapidly expanding markets.

The agreement will see VMware adopt NTT’s Private 5G Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform that the Japanese telecom giant initially unveiled last year. VMware will plug this platform into its edge offering.

Conversely, NTT is using VMware’s Edge Compute Stack, which was launched at last year’s VMworld event, to power its new edge-as-a-service product. The VMware platform is an integrated virtual machine (VM) and container-based stack for edge-native apps. The NTT product will include its private 5G NaaS platform, though each service can be adopted separately if needed.

This work is an extension of NTT’s current membership in VMware’s Cloud Partner Program. VMware and NTT will each market their corresponding new services to their respective customer bases.

Intel is also part of the deal, though initial details are limited. The chip giant is being tasked with offering its edge network hardware, which could come from the recent launch of its Xeon D processors targeted at SDN and edge applications.

Shahid Ahmed, NTT Group EVP and CEO of its New Ventures and Innovation division, explained that the NTT platform will come from the Japanese telecom giant’s services company. It will build on NTT’s initial product launch a year ago.

The platform will operate on top of VMware’s Edge Compute Stack and that additional hardware and software support from Intel.

NTT will market this as edge-as-a-service, which will include private 5G, edge compute, and IoT bundled together. It will run alongside the vendor’s NaaS and multi-cloud-as-a-service managed products.

“The whole premise behind it is that many of our customers are looking for an end-to-end solution when they're buying either edge or private 5G architectures as opposed to buying edge compute from XYZ and then a private 5G from somebody else and an IoT solution from someone else,” Ahmed explained. “So we thought we would do a full one-stop solution for our customers, particularly those that are in manufacturing and industrial sectors.”

Ahmed did add that NTT will also be able to break these services apart for customers that just want one of the services, but they will all be managed by NTT.

“We have a very simple pricing structure, which is predictable and tier-based so the customer doesn't have to put up upfront capex, it’s all opex based,” he said. “Obviously, some verticals like to purchase or acquire technology as a capex, so we can do that as well.”

That one-stop solution also includes logistics, hardware, and spectrum targeted at each deployment.

Ahmed said NTT can provide site survey, design, deploy, test, and service level agreement (SLA) services for each deployment, “whether it’s 10,000 square feet or 100,000 square feet.”

This includes physical antennas and equipment that use open radio access network (RAN) standards and are compatible with 5G technology. Ahmed said NTT was working with an unnamed vendor for that equipment that is a “much smaller company” than vendors like NEC, Nokia, or Ericsson that NTT works with on its larger 5G deployments.

NTT can also deploy the needed on-site edge servers to support low-latency applications and services typical of manufacturing facilities. A recent ABI Research report predicted manufacturing and industrial firms will have more than 49 million 5G connections inside their facilities, generating $2.4 billion in global connections revenue for suppliers by 2030.

NTT is also handling spectrum requirements for the deployments based on region. Ahmed explained that the U.S. will likely initially be focused on the quasi-licensed Citizen Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum, though that currently only supports 4G LTE technology.

“But there’s ways you can also structure CBRS to work with 5G, but it’s not a very scalable way of doing that,” Ahmed said, adding that NTT has local partnerships with telecom operators and carriers “to give us access to the spectrum itself.”

NTT also has deals with satellite companies that have access to terrestrial spectrum assets. “There’s a number of different options and plays we’re leveraging to get access to spectrum,” Ahmed added.

Deployments can also tap NTT’s Transatel subsidiary, which earlier this year expanded its 5G IoT platform into the U.S. That service uses an e-SIM product that is embedded into consumer devices that allows for private-public roaming across wholesale agreements in more than 200 countries.