Wedoany.com Report on Mar 10th, The European Commission announced an $86 million EURO-3C project at the Mobile World Congress, aiming to develop Europe's first large-scale federated distributed computing architecture to build a "Federated Telecom Edge Cloud".
The project brings together telecom operators, cloud service providers, and research institutions to unify existing resources and capabilities under a shared architecture adhering to EU standards. The European Commission stated that the EURO-3C project aims to deliver cutting-edge digital services while reducing dependence on providers from third countries.
A Telefónica blog post indicated that the EURO-3C project will cover over 70 edge and cloud nodes across more than 13 European countries. Javier García Rodrigo and Arturo José Torrealba Ferrer from Telefónica Innovación Digital wrote: "New use cases will be developed on this infrastructure to validate its impact across different industrial sectors such as transportation, automotive, security, and energy. The combination of advanced connectivity, distributed computing, and artificial intelligence will enable new digital services and optimize operations."
In addition to Telefónica, participants include telecom companies like BT, Deutsche Telekom, and Nokia, as well as IT service providers such as Ionos, Capgemini, and SUSE. Renate Nikolay, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission, explained: "The EU-funded EURO-3C project unites the efforts of a large number of European actors around a common goal: building a secure and sovereign converged communications landscape to benefit the industrial sectors that provide and use the technologies, as well as society as a whole."
The EURO-3C project is the latest in a series of EU initiatives aimed at promoting technological self-reliance. Gartner predicts that European spending on sovereign cloud infrastructure will grow significantly over the next two years. In terms of edge computing, the EU is leveraging its advantage of telecom operator collaboration to advance projects.
Despite the EU's commitment to sovereignty, it faces regulatory challenges. Some telecom executives have warned that without more relaxed and consistent regulatory support, the EU could struggle in the technology race. European lawmakers recently removed some digital technologies and AI from a list of strategic technologies, which may exacerbate related concerns.
