• Singtel is exploring digital twin technology to improve service reliability and enable self-healing networks
• The telco is leveraging AI internally to improve employee productivity and externally to understand and address evolving enterprise demands
• It is also championing cross-industry collaboration through API federation efforts with rivals and regional telcos and is focusing on security

With the modern day needs of the enterprise community in mind, Singtel has broadened its portfolio of digital services with the recent rollout of network slicing, a greater focus on the potential of AI and the adoption of digital twin technology. 

“Digital twin is something we are experimenting with,” noted Lin Shu Fen, head of enterprise mobility at Singtel,  Singapore’s largest service provider. “The intent is to better serve our customers by improving our response to service issues. This is the first phase. In the second phase, we want to use it for self-healing, which is our North Star vision. We would also like to provide observability for our customers in a way that enables them to understand the [impact of] services – for instance, when they deploy devices or routers on our network,” she added. 

Besides a digital twin, Lin is excited about the potential of network slicing to address the demands of enterprises. Singtel recently launched 5G+, enabled by the national deployment of network slicing capabilities, to help meet the varied requirements of business customers in terms of bandwidth, latency and other key performance indicators (KPIs), though it should be noted the service is also available to consumer users also.

The launch is significant as it opens up network slicing on a much broader scale: Previously, Singtel offered slicing only as part of private network deployments. “It means that an enterprise doesn’t have to buy a whole private network” to make use of a dedicated network slice, explained Lin. This makes it easier to meet the needs of multiple vertical sector use cases, such as meeting the specific application prioritisation and latency requirements of, for example, connected iPads in a healthcare environment or SIM-enabled devices at mass rapid transport stations or airports. “We are able to provide this across the country with network slicing,” added Lin.

The service is underpinned by user equipment route selection policy (URSP) technology, which has been “configured for enterprises to prioritise specific apps that support their business needs.” Singtel worked with network systems vendor Ericsson and smartphone giant Samsung to implement URSP.  

Globally, Singtel claims to be one of the few service providers offering network slicing at scale. “I believe network slicing not just allows us to offer a differentiated experience to our customers but also enables several use cases in healthcare, logistics and smart factories,” noted Lin. 

Leveraging AI and network APIs

Like most service providers, Singtel is also turning to AI to optimise its internal operations, as well as to develop new use cases for businesses. 

In this context, Singtel has provided tools, including Microsoft CoPilot, to its workforce to incorporate AI into their workflows, while ensuring adherence to governance and privacy rules. “This sandbox provides the employees the flexibility to play with AI tools and also think of how to upskill and redesign their scope and that’s how we want to get value add, because it is not about replacing [people].”

However, she acknowledged there is concern about the impact of AI adoption, though less so as people start to understand AI and how it can be put to good use.  

In addition, the growing use of AI tools and applications by businesses means the way they engage with their telecom service providers is also changing. “Our customers are using AI, which means the way they engage with us to consume our services, their workloads and the demands that they have from our connectivity services and solutions are also changing. From this point of view, we are out there understanding what our customers need, the applications they use, how they deploy AI – if they move towards agentic AI”, then Singtel will support that trend, explained Lin. 

Another focus area for Lin is the use of network application programming interfaces (APIs) to develop relevant use cases. “It is amazing that we can work with our competitors, like M1 or StarHub, to federate the APIs. We are good at competing, but in this case, we are working together because the outcome is to bring down scams and fraud, which is a national, even a global issue,” stated Lin. 

She is referring to Singtel’s partnership with rival mobile operator M1 to federate a suite of APIs focused on authentication and fraud detection. This allows enterprises to access network data for real-time fraud prevention. Singtel has also partnered with regional service providers, including Thailand’s AIS and Malaysia’s Maxis, to use telco APIs to address the growing problem of digital scams. A growing number of service providers are using telco APIs for fraud prevention, as the problem is particularly acute in South-east Asia. 

Singtel is also one of the founding telco partners of Aduna, the network API company formed by 12 telcos and Ericsson, and is playing a key role in the Bridge Alliance API Exchange (BAEx), which has many major service provider participants and has struck a strategic partnership with Aduna. 

Singtel is using a combination of APIs and AI to develop new products for its enterprise customers. For instance, the Scam Sniffer API uses machine learning to study call records and model them against scam calls to detect fraudulent calls: Singtel is particularly targeting banks and other financial institutions with this product. 

- Gagandeep Kaur, contributing editor, TelecomTV