Boost Mobile on building an EMS-less, vendor-agnostic network from the ground up

Recorded at DTW Ignite 2025 in Copenhagen, this panel brings together senior figures from Boost Mobile and Rakuten Symphony to discuss the practical realities of moving away from vendor-supplied element management systems. Boost Mobile explains why it chose a single centralised observability framework from the outset in 2021, how it tackled data normalisation across multiple vendors including Nokia, Oracle and Mavenir, and why it is taking a deliberate, step-by-step approach to automation in a live network carrying critical communications. The discussion also covers how observability frameworks will need to evolve to handle the dynamic topology of non-terrestrial networks, and where operators are most likely to find early ROI from network automation.

Featuring:

• Dawood Shahdad, SVP, Hybrid MNO, Boost Mobile
• Sruthi Nair, Director, Voice Core Engineering and Automation, Boost Mobile
• Ahmed Abdelaziz, VP, Network Transformation, Rakuten Symphony

Recorded June 2026