Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (00:08):
Hi, I'm Tony Poulos and I'm at TelecomTV's AI Native Telco Forum in Düsseldorf. Very pleased to have with me today Itsuma Tanaka, who is the president and CEO of DOCOMO Communications Laboratories here in Europe. Tanaka-san, welcome.

Itsuma Tanaka, DOCOMO Euro-Labs (00:25):
Hello. Thank you.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (00:26):
Look, as a member of the ANTA Steering Board, can you please tell our viewers why you wanted to be involved in this and why it's important for the industry?

Itsuma Tanaka, DOCOMO Euro-Labs (00:35):
When I heard about this initiative, I thought this was it. Everybody was talking on their presentation slides about AI concepts, but at ANTA, what we learned, it's about collecting evidence, what everybody was actually doing. So I thought it was a great opportunity for us to learn what the world is really doing. I mean, it's like a little less conversation, a little more action please. You know what I mean? So focus on more action was what attracted us to this initiative.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (01:10):
So how is AI driving operational excellence and improving service quality at your organization at DOCOMO?

Itsuma Tanaka, DOCOMO Euro-Labs (01:16):
Yeah, back in Japan, it's already real. We have a lot of AI agents running on the millions of network equipments and monitoring the service quality. And when things go wrong, they can quickly identify what goes wrong and we try to fix. So that achieves 50% shortening the time required to fix the problem, for example. And also other topics like when we construct the network, the system, we actively use AI to design and that shortens the time it takes to design as well. So it's already showing a lot of effect, the real effect to improve our service experience. And yeah, it's a good thing for our customer, not just for our business.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (02:09):
And good for the industry because you're sharing that knowledge with them. Last year you discussed the timeline for becoming AI native and how it was tied to 6G. Given all the advancements and investments we've seen in the last year, do you think the timeline has accelerated? And if so, why?

Itsuma Tanaka, DOCOMO Euro-Labs (02:26):
It's actually yes and no. Yes part, the 6G timeline is still there. It's targeting 2030 deployment, but the actual deployment of AI has accelerated much faster than last year. So yeah, so it's a good thing, I think, that we have more experience. I mean, we understand what AI can do, how AI can help and where we must be cautious about it. So we have more knowledge, definitely. So that part has accelerated. So now the big question towards 2030, the timeline is that based on those learnings, what is the strategic decisions that we have to make towards the 6G, so that the 6G, our telecom network, our customer service experience, everything becomes AI native. So yeah, so that's the question today.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (03:27):
Is that critical for a 6G network? Do you think it'd be AI native?

Itsuma Tanaka, DOCOMO Euro-Labs (03:31):
I think so, yeah. I mean, we have a lot of issues from economics, geopolitical things, service, new services, monetization opportunities. The entire economy in the industry is so dramatically changing. So it's very important so that the new architecture, the new system that we're creating meet those new demands.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (03:56):
Tell us about some of the key strategies DOCOMO has lined up for the next 12 months to deliver the promise of AI.

Itsuma Tanaka, DOCOMO Euro-Labs (04:03):
One thing we are doing is we are deliberately testing small hands-on AI deployments on the front line, meaning local branches, like small sales team. They're building their own small AI to test different ideas. And we do this before somebody comes up with a big-headed, beautiful concept on the slide, because we don't know. I mean, it's important for us to know what works and what doesn't. And collectively, well, if we have a collection of those experience, the trials, success or not, then we start seeing the new patterns across different tests.

(04:51):
So from the network frontline, from designing the areas, the parameter tuning the RAN, or sales team trying to get the best out of the values for our customers in different areas, we are testing a lot of things. So from there, we can then try to draw the common foundation, the data architecture, what kind of API would be needed, et cetera, et cetera, and get the governance as well.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (05:21):
Is one part of your organization coordinating all of those activities?

Itsuma Tanaka, DOCOMO Euro-Labs (05:25):
Yes. Yes. There's a department in our headquarter overseeing those different activities, collecting information. But at the moment, again, the strategy is deliberately let them do rather freely the experiment. Yeah. So more the real coordination or the more real strategic architecture decisions will come in the later phase.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (05:47):
Well, I have to thank you from TelecomTV for your involvement in the ANTA Steering Committee and that you will be staying on board. We'd very much appreciate it. Thank you so much for being with us today.

Itsuma Tanaka, DOCOMO Euro-Labs (05:56):
Thank you very much.