AWS is deploying compute and storage in 5G operators’ data centres in an effort to improve latency for 5G applications.

The new service, dubbed AWS Wavelength, will initially be available in the US, Europe, Japan and Korea through Verizon, Vodafone, KDDI and SK Telecom. AWS also plans to announce more global partners for the service soon.

Wavelength allows AWS developers to deploy a portion of an application at the 5G network edge, while the rest of the application runs in the further upstream.

Application traffic need only travel from devices to cellular towers and then to a Wavelength Zone located in a metro aggregation site, according to an AWS announcement.

AWS is touting the capability as ideal for low-latency use cases, including those using Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

Despite the low latency of 5G service, AWS points out that mobile device must still make multiple network hops to connect to Internet applications.

“Today, application traffic has to travel from a device to a cell tower to metro aggregation sites to regional aggregation sites and to the Internet before it can access resources running in AWS. These network hops can result in latencies of more than 100 milliseconds,” reads the AWS Wavelength announcement.