Telcos need to keep their eyes on the AI prize – TM Forum

• TM Forum’s Aaron Boasman-Patel says AI opens the monetisation door for telcos
• Physical AI could help generate a new revenue stream for operators
• The forum’s Catalyst projects provide a guide to what is possible

Telcos continue to face a familiar and tricky conundrum – while traffic volumes continue to soar, putting more strain on their infrastructure, revenue growth is flat, despite significant investments in 5G technologies.

According to PwC’s Global Telecom Outlook published last year, global telecom service revenue is set to rise from $1.15tn in 2024 to roughly $1.32tn in 2029, “representing a steady, but unremarkable, compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 2.8%,” noted the consultancy.

Every new wave and generation of technology has promised an uplift in revenues – from 4G to the internet of things and now 5G and network slicing but, for many in the industry, a noticeable return on investment is MIA. 

At the recent DTW Ignite event in Copenhagen, it was clear – from the conference agenda through to the exhibition hall – which technology is being positioned as the next great hope for telco revenue gains: Unsurprisingly, AI was everywhere. 

But while much of the telco discussion around AI has been about operational efficiencies and autonomous networks, trade group the TM Forum, which runs the DTW Ignite event, believes operators could be overlooking an even bigger opportunity.

The forum’s VP of innovation, Aaron Boasman-Patel, explained: “AI is the underlying technology that is going to transform this industry. Operators are facing a number of unique challenges, so it is important for them to anchor in and determine what their role is in AI moving forward.”

However, while network efficiency is a very important benefit that operators will gain from AI deployments, it isn’t the only potential positive, he noted. “We can’t just keep on harping on about efficiency… we have got to drive growth,” he added. “The real challenge is – how do we get the industry to drive monetisation and real business value?” 

One example of how telcos can monetise AI, according to Boasman-Patel, is by charging for additional capabilities that are already features of their networks, such as data analytics. He gives the example of a factory where analytics capabilities built into a network could significantly speed up product testing because of AI.

“We’ve got to drive growth – if we take a factory, we could be providing all of the analytics, the checks on products, so nothing needs to be recalled, rather than [using] manual inspections.

“Site inspections are another example, where a telco could do all of the analytics and the connectivity. It is about becoming more than just a connectivity partner and offering all of these additional services.”

Catalyst projects

He pointed to the TM Forum’s Catalyst projects, which are on display every year on the DTW Ignite show floor, as an example of how the industry is collaborating to produce monetisation opportunities and practical use cases. The Catalysts are member-driven proof-of-concept projects that bring together service providers, vendors and global enterprises to develop solutions for telecom and digital industry challenges. The projects, which tend to last for three to six months, test new technologies – such as 5G, AI and APIs – against TM Forum best practices and standards.

This year, a record 59 teams – made up of more than 1,350 individuals representing over 250 organisations – worked on the Catalysts, solving real-life industry challenges with working code, according to TM Forum.

“Our Catalyst programme shows what happens when the industry comes together with shared purpose and real urgency,” he explained. “What we’ve seen on stage at DTW Ignite is more than innovation; it is proof that the future can move faster when the right people build it together.”

He pointed to a number of areas in which the Catalyst projects specialised, including energy efficiency, automation and physical network use cases, such as drone-based work.

One example he mentioned involves a robotic dog and aims to demonstrate AI monetisation opportunities for operators by providing a blueprint for how they can evolve from connectivity-centric infrastructures into foundational intelligence platforms.

The physical AI project integrates connectivity, distributed compute and AI orchestration across device, edge and cloud, enabling AI inference and service intelligence to be dynamically distributed across the network, all packaged up in a robot, which can serve several functions, including acting as a guide dog or collecting parcels for its user. The project featured members from Red Hat, ZTE and Netcracker, and was championed by telcos AT&T, China Telecom and Omantel.

“When we try to understand what services operators can monetise, the robotic dog project is a great example,” said Boasman-Patel. “In the UK it can take years to get a guide dog companion, so this project could have a real impact on people’s lives.

“But if we look beyond that at the telco picture, it is also really exciting because the commercial side is a brand new revenue stream. We can charge for the data analytics, for the ubiquitous connectivity that can be provided by network slicing, which is controlled by AI, and everything around that. Obviously, this expands out to other robotics use cases, too.”

The TM Forum’s SODA stream

Another key area of focus for the industry as a whole – including the TM Forum – is satellite connectivity: The increasing interest and levels of investment in space-based communications led the industry body to extend its Open Digital Architecture (ODA) for satellites, an initiative it calls SODA, which it announced just before DTW Ignite, with 16 partners initially signing up.

As the satellite industry enters a period of rapid growth, driven by the launches of direct-to-device services and the growth of low-earth orbit (LEO) networks, the TM Forum is looking to extend its ODA to meet the demands of non-terrestrial networks. This will see collaborations on developing reusable models, APIs and operational frameworks to integrate terrestrial networks and non-terrestrial networks (NTNs).

“What the industry is now realising is that you need ubiquitous connectivity because life has changed,” he explained. Larger countries, such as the US, will need non-terrestrial solutions to make sure even remote rural areas are connected, he added. 

“But the picture is still really complicated, because it is very different in India, to the UK, to say China and the US, where companies operate in very different conditions. But there are some interesting economies of scale, where satellites can help deal with some of that demand and also help with spectral efficiency.”

He concluded with a warning: In the AI era, “the technology is moving really fast, so the industry needs to move fast, too.” 

- James Pearce, Editor, TelecomTV