SK Telecom is bridging its mobile edge computing (MEC) reach with the launch of a new organization targeted at sharing what it has learned in 5G and MEC across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

The work is through the launch of the Global MEC Task Force, which will operate as part of the broader Bridge Alliance. Other members include SK Telecom, Singtel, Globe, Taiwan Mobile and PCCW Global. Those operators will use the group to share their work on 5G and MEC, including working toward international MEC standards to support interoperability across operators.

“SK Telecom will work closely with Bridge Alliance member operators to help accelerate their progress in 5G and MEC, and create a pan-Asian 5G MEC ecosystem,” explained Lee Kang-won, VP and head of SK Telecom’s Cloud Labs.

The Bridge Alliance dates back to 2004, when it was formed by a handful of APAC mobile operators as the Bridge Mobile Alliance. Those initial members included India’s Bharti, Globe Telecom from the Philippines, Malaysia’s Maxis, Optus in Australia, SingTel from Singapore, Taiwan Cellular, and Telkomsel in Indonesia. That initial focus was on forming a regional mobile alliance that could better compete with a larger economy of scale.

It has since grown to include 34 operators serving more than 800 million customers. Marquee members include China Telecom, China Unicom, SoftBank, and SK Telecom. It has also changed its focus toward IoT, enterprise mobility, and roaming optimization across carriers.

SK Telecom is hosting the group’s first MEC workshop this week, with a focus on identifying regional MEC-based use cases, and working through business models and commercialization plans.

SK Telecom is already part of a number of edge-focused efforts. This includes the Deutsche Telekom-led MobiledgeX initiative, which recently welcomed Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, and is part of Amazon Web Services’ (AWS’) Wavelength edge computing service.

The latest work with SK Telecom toward MEC interoperability is following that same model. Efforts have so far been limited to random cross-carrier efforts, though a number of industry standards bodies are also attempting to unify the market.

The European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI), for instance, last year released MEC specifications that deal with architecture, framework, and general principles for service APIs. These are targeted at interoperability and deployments, with a focus on running applications at the mobile network edge and providing use cases and technical benefits for those deployments.

A recent report from Chetan Sharma Consulting and commissioned by software vendor AlefEdge found that the “edge internet” market will be worth $4.1 trillion by 2030.