Telefónica advances autonomous network plan, activates edge sites

• Spanish telco ended 2025 with 12 advanced, operational autonomous network use cases across key markets
• It has also activated five edge computing nodes in Spain to provision B2B services 

Telefónica says it ended last year with 12 “fully operational” instances of Level 4 autonomous networking use cases in Spain, Germany and Brazil, and, separately, has announced the activation of enterprise services from five of its new edge computing hubs in Spain. 

Telcos around the world are striving to develop autonomous networking processes that can improve efficiency, time-to-market and customer experience and many are using the Autonomous Networks (AN) framework (measured in levels 0 to 5) defined by industry body the TM Forum to judge and report on their progress. Many operators currently have targets to achieve AN Level 4, which requires intelligent automation using AI. 

Telefónica introduced its Autonomous Network Journey (ANJ) program in 2021 “to transform network processes through automation and artificial intelligence,” and believes it has “exceeded initial expectations” with its current progress. “What seemed to be a long-term journey has accelerated significantly thanks to the strong commitment of the operations teams of Telefónica Spain, O2 Germany and Vivo (Brazil),” the operator noted. 

At their highest levels, “networks are capable of self-learning, span multiple domains, and possess self-configuration, self-optimisation, and self-healing capabilities, ensuring the highest levels of efficiency and reliability,” noted the operator, which is  measuring the evolution of autonomy in each network domain (Fixed Access, Mobile Access, Transport, IP, Core and Telco Cloud), as well as in each key process (Planning, Testing, Deployment and Operations). 

At its Capital Markets Day held last November, the telco outlined a roadmap to reach an average level of autonomy of 3.75 by 2028 and reach level 4 by 2030 in Spain, Brazil and Germany.

According to Telefónica, it ended 2025 with the following dozen Level 4 use cases (those capable of acting autonomously based on the intention transmitted by a human), “all of them fully operational”:

• Autonomous creation of network capacity with Vivo’s AI (Fractal). [telefonica.com]
• Digital twin for the transport network (NetOptimizer) from O2 Germany. [telefonica.com]
• Autonomous detection and resolution of weaknesses in Telefónica España’s IP network. [telefonica.com]
• Autonomous detection and resolution on Vivo’s virtualized 5G Core. [telefonica.com]
• Telefónica Spain’s intelligent planning for the deployment of customer fibre (Smart CAPEX). [telefonica.com]
• Intelligent planning for the O2 Germany transmission network. [telefonica.com]
• NetCheck for error-free software changes from Telefonica Spain’s IP network. [telefonica.com]
• NetCheck for intelligent configuration of Telefónica España’s IP network.
• Autonomous creation of client fiber capacity (Fractal II) from Vivo.
• O2 Germany’s Operations Analytics, Ticketing, and Diagnostics automation virtual assistant.
• In-service software change of CORE 5G (InService Software Upgrade) from O2 Germany. [telefonica.com]
• Intelligent multi-domain correlation at the customer level for proactive and automated detection of impact, anomalies and root cause in 4G/5G at O2 Germany.

Activating the edge

Meanwhile, the operator has also provided an update on its edge computing rollout in Spain, which it shared initially in late January – see Telefónica ramps up its edge datacentre rollout in Spain.

It says it has 12 nodes up and running and is already offering low-latency enterprise services from five locations – Madrid, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao, and A Coruña – with the other seven to follow. During the course of the year it will add five more locations to take its total edge sites across Spain to 17. 

The telco noted that it recently partnered with CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles) to launch the first European B2B pilot integrating Edge and 5G standalone (5G SA) capabilities applied to the railway sector. “Thanks to edge, CAF can deploy interior perception solutions based on artificial vision without the need to install processing nodes in each car, maintaining low latency and ensuring processing close to the asset,” stated the operator.  

Telefónica also noted it is launching two levels of services: Edge Básico and Smart Edge, “adaptable to each case and to the requests of each company. The portfolio is supported by the TTCP (Telefónica Tech Cloud Platform) service operated by Telefónica Tech.”

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV