The Future of RAN summit concluded with experts identifying AI RAN as a top industry priority, potentially overshadowing Open RAN. While AI RAN can provide efficiency gains of 20% in poor coverage areas, significant concerns remain regarding the high costs and return on investment for GPU deployment. The panellists said that progress will be a “game of inches”, focused on virtualising infrastructure, expanding small cells, and aggressively sunsetting legacy networks. Ultimately, the industry must solve 5G monetisation by integrating telco solutions into the specific business models of other industries.

Broadcast Live April 2026