• The AI-Native Telco Accelerator (ANTA) has been officially unveiled
• Founding participants include Axiata, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, NTT Docomo, Rakuten Mobile, the GSMA, Wind River and Totogi, with more to follow
• The TelecomTV initiative will help drive the telecom sector from AI experimentation to scalable execution

Major telcos, vendors and trade bodies have joined forces for the official launch of the AI-Native Telco Accelerator (ANTA), a TelecomTV initiative that will help communications service providers (CSPs) more quickly progress from AI experimentation to real-world, scalable deployments. 

Through unique industry research, community engagement and industry events, ANTA will help operators move from AI experimentation to scalable deployment by providing independent intelligence, practical guidance and opportunities for impactful collaboration. 

ANTA will address “one of the telecom sector’s biggest AI transformation challenges: Fragmented information, disconnected initiatives and a lack of common benchmarks for measuring progress,” TelecomTV and its partners announced on Monday. 

The official launch, which was preceded by a panel discussion at TelecomTV’s recent DSP Leaders World Forum, comes at a critical time for the telco community as it explores how it can use and develop AI in the most impactful and relevant ways. The TelecomTV team is tracking key developments in our dedicated channel, The AI-Native Telco, which will include updates on ANTA developments.

ANTA will provide CSPs with research data (including an AI-Native Telco Index), new opportunities for industry collaboration, and practical guidance via a community hub and industry events, including the annual AI-Native Telco Forum, that will help them with their AI-native telco strategies and enable them to better understand how they are progressing as the whole telecom sector embraces AI. 

ANTA is backed by founding partners that bring market-leading experience to the initiative – Axiata, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, NTT Docomo, Rakuten Mobile, the GSMA, Wind River and Totogi. The cross-industry accelerator is also supported by ETSI, the NGMN Alliance, the TM Forum, Mavenir and Wavelo.

Additional telcos, AI sector players, technology developers and industry stakeholders are set to join in the coming months.

“Agentic AI in telco is increasing, but accelerating and scaling requires the right foundations including interoperable data, open APIs, AI controls and automated lifecycle management,” stated Ahmed Hafez, SVP of network strategy and data & AI in networks at Deutsche Telekom. “Building these foundations demands openness, standardisation and collective action across the ecosystem,” he added.

“AI is a strategic imperative for operators now,” noted Guy Daniels, chief strategy officer at TelecomTV. “The challenge is getting to grips with the fast-paced nature and complexity of the technology to move from isolated experiments to scalable deployment. ANTA exists to help the industry answer that question through shared knowledge, independent research and collective action to help accelerate the emergence of truly AI-native telecom operators and ensure they’re not left behind.”

Among the resources that ANTA will provide its members are: 

● AI-Native Telco Index – an annual benchmark assessing 50 Tier 1 and Tier 2 operators against 20 AI-native transformation markers, creating one of the industry’s most comprehensive assessments of AI activity.

● AI-Native Telco Forum – an in-person industry event, this year held in Düsseldorf on 8-9 September, that will bring together operators, technology providers and experts to discuss research findings and emerging best practices.

● ANTA Intelligence – a dedicated digital channel, featuring research, analysis, whitepapers, member insights and industry updates.

● Quarterly topic reports – deep-dive analysis into key AI-native technologies, domains and operational priorities.

● Webinars and video content – regular discussions, interviews and expert panels focused on practical implementation and lessons learned.

● Academy – a central repository of deployment case studies, proofs of concept and innovation programmes from across the industry.

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV