Communications group Liberty Global has joined forces with digital infrastructure investment firm Digital Colony to launch Atlas Edge Data Centres.

The joint venture will build a bunch of data centres across Europe, designed to cater for edge computing. ‘The company aims to serve the growing demand from cloud providers, streaming services and enterprises for high-performance, scalable and secure facilities through which they can distribute low-latency applications and services such as 5G, gaming, IOT and edge compute,’ says the press release.

“Combining Liberty Global’s technical real estate and track record in building successful, sustainable businesses with Digital Colony’s expertise in digital infrastructure investment creates an exciting platform for growth that will deliver long-term value,” said Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global.

“The proposed joint venture presents significant growth opportunities as we look to build this business into a leading European edge data centre operator. Furthermore, since several of our operating companies will become anchor tenants, Liberty Global customers will also benefit from better and more responsive services.”

It doesn’t sound like Liberty Global companies, and thus their customers, have much choice in the matter. It’s definitely easier to start a new business venture if you can compel a bunch of people to become your partners immediately. Having said that, there’s every possibility this move will be a success, with demand for MEC being driven by the low-latency use-cases associated with proper 5G.