Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (00:04):
The way in which radio access network infrastructure is being managed is changing and one of the operators leading the way in the deployment of next generation cutting edge technology is Canada's TELUS. To find out more, I'm talking today with Bernard Bureau Vice President of Wireless strategy and services at TELUS, and Stephen Wiktorski Vice President and head of networks at Samsung Canada. Welcome both to TelecomTV. Now TELUS and Samsung recently announced they have worked together on the deployment of Canada's first AI powered RAN intelligent controller or RIC on a commercial network. Can you tell me about this collaboration and how it came about? Bernard, let's come to you first.

Bernard Bureau, TELUS (00:52):
Sure. TELUS selected the Samsung Networks as a radio supplier five years ago and since then we've been able to build an excellent relationship. One of the main differentiating factors versus other suppliers was their roadmap for supporting true ORAN and virtual RAN. And since then we've had an amazing journey and we believe that today TELUS is the best example globally, that open RAN and virtual RAN can meet the highest brownfield deployment requirements. So building on this great relationship, when it came to selecting our non real-time RIC platform supplier, we decided to select Samsung Networks. Again, their commitment to openness was very important to us. We had experienced the same thing as we went through our open RAN deployment where we use radios from Samsung of course, but also from AmpliTech and all our macro sites. For the RIC, besides deploying rApps from Samsung, we will also deploy third party rApps and we're going to build some ourselves as well. We also wanted to make sure that the Samsung RIC would be able to manage any open RAN equipment that we have in our network because that is what open RAN is about.

(02:15):
Deploying open RAN and virtual RAN architecture already gives TELUS a ton of benefit, but the non-real time RIC brings it to the next level in terms of being able to use AI easily and automate closed loop automation in the RAN.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (02:27):
Okay, great. And Stephen, can we get your perspective on this collaboration as well?

Stephen Wiktorski, Samsung (02:33):
Yeah, absolutely. So just to echo what Bernard said, we've been working together since 2019 when we first entered the RAN with TELUS and our collaboration has been nothing short of fantastic. Together we've implemented an architecture which embodies the truest vision of Open RAN and the RIC is the next logical step along that path. And something that Samsung's been working on for quite some time is aligned with our broader strategic vision of deploying end-to-end software networks that are deployed on commodity hardware with open interfaces, which we believe is going to be the bedrock or the foundation for AI powered autonomous networks. And so to partner with a company like TELUS who shares that vision and is acting on that vision is refreshing and I think it's something that we're going to see a lot of additional announcements and a lot of additional benefits for both TELUS and Samsung in the coming years.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (03:32):
Okay, great. Well let's delve a little deeper. What kind of applications are being deployed here and what's the anticipated timeline? Stephen, let's start with you on this.

Stephen Wiktorski, Samsung (03:47):
Well, I think you can break the applications into two broad sections. You've got your traditional C-SON applications, which obviously provide a lot of operational benefits for TELUS. And then there's a second set of applications which are AI powered applications, which Samsung's been working on hard for the last couple of years. And there are applications such as KPI, anomaly detection, which obviously detects KPIs and allows the degradation KPIs and allows us to provide root cause analysis and to remedy those KPIs. There's energy Savings managers and Load balancing manager, which given the number of bands that TELUS have are very beneficial applications, allowing them to lower their costs and will also get them absolute maximum performance from their network. We're anticipating that we'll have these applications up and running in their network in the coming months and then obviously as we go forward we'll see more and more applications coming in from both ourselves tell us and from third parties.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (04:46):
Okay, great. Bernard, if we can hear from you on this as well,

Bernard Bureau, TELUS (04:51):
The few apps that Steve just mentioned are going to have a really meaningful impact on our customer's experience on our network and that is what I'm mostly excited about. Yes, of course there is efficiency with the R replacing human interventions from our engineers so that they can focus on more important tasks and that's excellent, but also the ability to resolve problems that are simply too complex for humans to resolve in a timely manner. If I take the load balancing as an example or a network is incredibly complex with nine bands of LTE and four of NR from 600 megahertz to 3.8 gigahertz or networks can't be optimized for the worst case scenario only they need to be optimized based on the current context and that implies a lot more ongoing configuration optimization than ever before. And as you can imagine with so many bands in play and with a lot of pressure from the traffic demand, our sites should not be configured the same way for managing traffic early Sunday morning as for Thursday at 5:00 PM or during a music festival or for a site that's just there to provide rule coverage on the highway.

(06:11):
So this is where, for example, the rApps managing the load balancing comes into play depending on the current context as predicted by ai, the right configuration for the right time considering the individual coverage conditions of the users will truly maximize the customer's experience on our wireless network. And that means multiple changes of configuration per day and per cell. So even with a large army of engineers, we wouldn't be able to do this. And with the hundreds of millions of dollars of capacity being injected in our network every year, being more efficient on our asset utilization is an incredible business outcome. Another example, the RAN generates more than 7,000 counters every five or 15 minutes quickly. Identifying abnormalities on 200,000 cells can only be realized efficiently with a platform like like the R and using in our app. And for that we need AI techniques that are going to understand what is normal versus abnormal because a vast majority of the variations in performance metrics are totally normal and that's the first step. But then we'll rapidly implement fast rules cause module and the framework to implement the necessary fix in the network in a close manner. This is coming very soon, as Steve was saying.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (07:39):
And does Samsung's RIC also support TELUS's legacy radio access network? Stephen, let's come to you first on this.

Stephen Wiktorski, Samsung (07:47):
We support both the traditional RAN network and their virtual RAN network. Obviously the virtual RAN network is built on the standards if you like, of open RAN. So it has open interfaces and with open interfaces you can get an awful lot more data. And data is the fuel for ai. So the more data we get, the more high quality and varied data we get, the more interesting applications that we can build, which will provide benefits for both TELUS, their consumers as well as TELUS as an organization. And the more interesting applications can be developed by companies like TELUS and other third parties. So yeah, we support both, but I think the bigger benefit will come from our open RAN.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (08:30):
Okay. And Bernard, I'm sure that this capability is very important to TELUS as well.

Bernard Bureau, TELUS (08:37):
It is. One of the great outcomes from our partnership with Samsung Networks is the support for TELUS's long-term strategy because when we selected Samsung Networks five years ago, TELUS wasn't ready for open and virtual RAN immediately. So we started to deploy Samsung Networks traditional RAN, but our discussion at the very beginning five years ago were all about our plan to adopt open and virtual RAN in the near future. And this is why Samsung Networks, RIC is supporting both traditional and open RAN products for TELUS. This is extremely important for us until the end of 2029 where we will be 100% open RAN and virtual RAN. That's after the implementation of a fronthaul switching unit for all our traditional sites. But we have a period of time where we need both to be managed the same way. Today about half of our network is using Samsung's traditional RAN equipment and 18% on open and virtual RAN. So you can imagine how valuable this is for TELUS and for our customers. We can gradually continue on our steady path towards a hundred percent open RAN network while benefiting from the rate capabilities beyond our open RAN footprint. So that's great.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (09:53):
Okay, fantastic. Great insights there. And ultimately Bernard, what improvements or benefits will the RIC enable for end users on the TELUS network?

Bernard Bureau, TELUS (10:06):
TELUS has always been focused on three things and our CEO repeats that constantly. Number one, best product, number two, best customer service, and number three, best value for our customers. And if we focus on wireless networks, the product is the network moving to open RAN and enabling the RIC leads directly to an overall best better customer experience on our network. Being able to use AI to predict customer's network context in the time and geography domain will greatly improve the network decisions. How we can serve them with our very complex video access network that yields very concretely better coverage and a more efficient use of our capacity, which translates to a better and more consistent data experience. Being able to quickly identify abnormalities to find root causes and implement actions to mitigate problems. We'll also have a meaningful impact on our customer experience on our network.

(11:06):
If we also look at TELUS's focus on providing the best value for our customers, open RAN and virtual RAN provide meaningful procurement savings. But additionally to this, and this is just one example with AI enabled energy savings we can save meaningfully on electricity. These are just a few examples to illustrate how Teles can offer better value to its customer without compromising the financial health of our operation and meet our sustainable ambitions. And this is just the beginning, to be honest. The non-real time RIC is built to use AI techniques and this leads to amazing outcomes. Open RAN and virtual also offer us a level of flexibility and other advantages that we never had in the past. But let me say that we're all very proud of our accomplishments so far and I am a firm believer that TELUS is open and virtual RAN strategy, which the RIC is a big part of. And using great partners like Samsung Networks is ing us as innovation leaders on the ongoing evolution of the 5G network and soon 6G towards the end of the decade, both of which are so important for Canada's digital economy.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (12:18):
Okay, fantastic. Thanks Bernard. We all look forward to seeing what this collaboration is going to bring in the coming years and it's been really interesting to hear more about the deployment of Samsung's RIC on the TELUS network. So Bernard, Stephen, thanks very much for joining us today.

Stephen Wiktorski, Samsung (12:37):
Thank you.

Bernard Bureau, TELUS (12:37):
Thank you.