By Chris Donkin

Verizon’s investment arm inked a deal to acquire a 9.9 per cent stake in mobile infrastructure company Casa Systems for almost US$40 million, a transaction disclosed by the vendor alongside a multi-year supply agreement with the former’s wireless division.

In a stock market announcement, Casa Systems noted the stake would be purchased by Verizon Ventures, an affiliate of mobile operator Verizon Wireless, at the close of trading yesterday  April 18.

Under the commercial agreement between the infrastructure company and Verizon, Casa Systems will supply its 5G core network functions system to the operator for its public mobile edge compute (MEC) service.

The operator has already made a number of moves towards use of MEC infrastructure, including for broadcast of ultra-high definition content and in its private enterprise offerings.

Verizon president for global networks and technology Kyle Malady stated its partner would provide “flexible applications that will allow us to scale up for our customers as real-time solutions continue to grow”, adding the two would pursue joint innovation.

Casa Systems supplies cloud-native and physical network equipment for fixed and mobile network providers.

On its website the vendor boasts a client base across more than 70 countries covering 475 service providers. Customers include Vodafone Group, Telefonica, AT&T, Orange and China Mobile.