One of the main arguments against the AI-RAN pitch (specifically AI-on-RAN, which describes providing AI services on RAN infrastructure), is that it is a rehash of the Multi-Access Edge Compute (MEC) idea, which made big promises to telcos but failed to deliver on them. According to Nvidia’s Global Head of Business Development for Telco, Chris Penrose, the difference between MEC and AI-RAN is that we now have new applications for edge services that change the commercial pitch entirely. “One of the challenges in MEC was that we were designing the networks for ultra-low latency applications running at the edge, but there wasn’t the demand. We didn’t have applications that required this,” said Penrose. “As we look into the future, we…