Verizon has recently announced a partnership with IBM to expand their 5G and Edge Computing presence. While Verizon is one of the leaders in 5G, they have been unable to put themselves in the same position with edge computing. Verizon has lagged behind competitors such as Intel and Cisco, with Verizon only having twenty-five (25) patent documents in the last five years to Intel's sixty-one (61) and Cisco's sixty-nine (69). However, Verizon has shown a strong interest in competing to become a leader in edge computing as well, with them previously announcing a partnership with Amazon for 5G-enabled edge computing in 2019.
Verizon has put themselves in a good position with this new partnership, as IBM has the fourth most documents in the last five years and IBM-owned Red Hat has the sixth most. It remains to be seen if Verizon will try to find other partners to help them stake their claim in the increasingly competitive field, but given their approach so far it certainly cannot be ruled out. If they wanted to pursue another big partner then Akamai or Centurylink could be next on their list, with them being third and fifth respectively in patent documents over the last five years. So Akamai and Centurylink, maybe keep an eye out for a call from Verizon?
Check out more about the top companies and the dark horse startups in the Magic Number® Edge Computing Patent Forecast®.
