Barcelona – At Mobile World Congress 2026, the telcos announce a major milestone for European digital infrastructure: the first live demonstration of the European Edge Continuum, a federated edge spanning the five largest operators in Europe.

Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, TIM, and Vodafone have successfully federated their edge environments, enabling seamless deployment of applications across their combined European footprint. Enhanced also by platform components developed in the context of European- IPCEI-CIS Project (funded by European Union - Next Generation EU), the first federation is now operational in lab and pre-production environments, marking a decisive step towards industrial and commercial rollout.

The European Edge Continuum enables customers and developers to deploy applications automatically and securely across nodes from different operators, with the potential to include other major technology players in the future.

Beyond interoperability and security, this capability introduces key advantages in edge environments. An extended footprint, allowing access to resources provided by multiple operators through a single-entry point, lays the foundation for dynamic workload allocation, intelligent distribution of applications across federated nodes for optimal performance, cost efficiency, and mobility, ensuring service continuity even as users move across networks. 

The federated European Edge Continuum initiative significantly extends the reach of each operator, offering customers simple access, tight integration with the network, interoperability, data sovereignty and flexibility, which are key requirements for Europe’s digital transformation.

During the MWC 2026 demonstration, it will be showcased how organizations can exploit the federated infrastructure. They can seamlessly deploy applications on one or more edge infrastructures across Europe, using a single-entry point. For operators, Edge Federation gives the opportunity to expand service offerings and to collaborate within an open ecosystem, unlocking new business models. The Edge Federation will ensure simple processes for onboarding new services and time-to-market acceleration.

The European Edge Continuum is designed as an open ecosystem. Work is already underway to integrate additional European technology leaders, application developers, and open-source communities. This initiative invites new partners to join and help shape the future of Europe’s digital infrastructure.

The next phase will focus on opening the ecosystem to new partners, industrialization and commercial rollout. The five operators invite the entire European technology community to collaborate, innovate, and build together.

“Our European Edge federation demonstrates that Europe is concretely building sovereign digital solutions. Interconnecting our edge environments to create a seamless continuum allows to propose a secure, open, and scalable digital infrastructure that matches Business customer's expectations to thrive in a connected Europe”: Claire Catherine Chauvin, Director Strategy Architecture & Standardisation at Orange.

“The European Edge Continuum marks a decisive leap forward for Europe’s digital sovereignty. By federating our edge capabilities, we are creating an open, scalable, and intelligent infrastructure that empowers developers and simplifies how enterprises deploy applications across the continent. This first pan European federated edge cloud gives customers seamless access, enhanced performance, and a unified entry point—accelerating time to market and unlocking new value across Europe’s digital ecosystem”: Cayetano Carbajo, Core, Transport and Ecosystem Director at CTIO, speaking on behalf of Telefónica.

“This initiative demonstrates that Europe can lead innovation through shared, open, and secure solutions. TIM is proud to contribute to the creation of the first pan-European federated edge which is now a reality and represents a cornerstone of the region’s future digital transformation. We now move toward industrialization and ecosystem expansion, creating an infrastructure that enables digital sovereignty and economic growth”: Andrea Calvi – Head of Technology Evolution, LAP & Devices at TIM.

“This federation proves that Europe is not just talking about digital sovereignty. We are building it,” said Christine Knackfuß-Nikolic, Chief Sovereign Officer at T-Systems. “By uniting our networks and expertise, we are creating a secure, open and trusted digital ecosystem made in Europe – for Europe’s digital future.”

“This collaboration provides Europe with a single-entry point into world class federated digital infrastructure while preserving user choice. It supports our aim to enhance Europe's competitiveness, resilience, and safety through cross-border, ubiquitous connectivity”: Marco Zangani, Director of Network Strategy and Architecture, Vodafone.