Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (00:14):
Hello and welcome to Extra Shot on Telecom TV and our final program of this year's Green Network Summit. I'm Guy Daniels and it's time now to sit back with a finely brewed coffee and savor the key talking points from our online event. Now all of the panels, interviews and live shows from the summit are now available to watch on demand and to guide you through some of the highlights of the Green Network Summit. I'm joined by my colleague Ray Matra, who will also reveal the final results of our viewer poll. Now, we opened this summit with a panel that looked at how to improve network energy efficiency through the use of ai. Obviously a lot of interest in AI use cases at the moment, and one of the first questions we asked our panel of experts was, what role will AI tools play in the network planning and building process? And here's what one of our guests, Mirko Voltolini of Colt Technology had to say,

Mirko Voltolini, Colt Technologies (01:19):
We operate a global net with hundreds of sites and thousands of links, several hundreds of sites. It has become impossible to do optimal planning. And I think the simplest use case, the one we are adopting today is for AI is demand forecasting where you can actually use AI to predict where traffic is going to go. And with that, then you can overlay information regarding where energy is more efficient is also greener, and combine this information to ensure optimal deployment of infrastructure. So I think that's applicable to both existing sites as well as new sites

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (02:00):
As well as Mirko from Colt. We also had experts from Telefonica and Juniper Networks. And Ray, you hosted that panel and you covered all stages of the network from planning through to operation. And one of the other important points raised was not to overlook human knowledge, the knowledge from engineers on the ground who are working on installations, whatever AI you were using needs to have access to that knowledge to

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (02:28):
Yeah, this point was hammered home again and again by our panelists. I mean, does AI recall what tweaks were made 20 or 15 years ago? Can an AI fully understand how networks function and the impact of actions and changes not in the same way as experienced staff who can provide the insight in how the AI can help best and augment human insights and processes Currently for some time yet, the optimal way to run a more efficient network will be to combine the skills of the living, breathing staff and the increasingly adept AI tools that can help the operations teams.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (03:08):
Indeed. Thanks Ray. And it's a reminder that AI, at least for now, is very much an assistant, not a replacement. Well, this summit also featured a panel that looked at the benefits of building a green, ran an energy efficient radio access network. Radio is notoriously power hungry. The radio unit itself is responsible for significant levels of power consumption in the ran about 80% or so. So what can be done to improve efficiency? Here's Saima Ansari from Deutsche Telekom and the Green Future Networks lead at NGMN

Saima Ansari, Deutsche Telekom & NGMN (03:45):
If we start from the hardware side in itself. So we will see that we have now the design of the power efficient chip setss, more efficient power amplifiers and other components which bring down the overall power consumption From the software point of view, if we see that radio units can dynamically adjust their power output based on real-time traffic demands, for example, during peak hours, the transmit power and active component can be scaled down while still maintaining the customer experience.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (04:19):
Well, lots of interesting ideas and innovations discussed in that panel. And Ray, I get a bit frustrated at times about slow progress here, but telcos are still very concerned about energy usage and costs and we are still seeing this area near the top of the wishlist for future six G features. It's not going away, is it?

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (04:40):
No, not at all. I mean it may have slipped into the wings as AI has taken center stage in just about everything these days, but it's still driving strategic initiatives for sure. And as we're starting to see in the full year 2024 financial reports and the telco community energy costs continue to rise at an alarming pace, and that's even before networks become even more dense as 5G networks expand and evolve and Edge compute starts to play a bigger role in communications networks. But I share your frustration. It seems to me that the use cases and the first steps that we hear about now in 2025 are pretty much the same ones we heard about four or five years ago. I mean surely a lot has changed since then.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (05:29):
Yeah, you would've thought so, wouldn't you? Energy efficiency is one of the selected core topics for 3G PPP release 20 that covers 5G advance, so perhaps we will see more progress over the next couple of years maybe. Well thanks Ray. We also heard from Telefonica during this summit about the work it is doing to create a greener network and I spoke with Nilmar Seccomandi David from the global CTIO unit at Telefonica, and during the interview I asked him what role AI plays in helping to reduce operational power usage in the network.

Nilmar Seccomandi David, Telefonica (06:07):
For me, it's not just about the best technology, it's about how we operate that the main use case is to optimize energy consumption based on traffic loads solutions like sleep deep modes can switch off network elements during low traffic hours. In other words, we can predict traffic and based on that, reduce the energy consumption without any quality issue. We're saving up to 30% by using AI solutions.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (06:46):
Good to see Telefonica sharing its progress on the green network. And Ray, it really does appear that AI can help achieve some significant savings for operators.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (06:58):
Yeah, it absolutely can and 30% is a great number, but as ever there's a potential impact here. No change is made in isolation as mentioned by a few of the summit speakers, what the operators and their partners are very focused on right now is the impact on customer experience. If such automated measures are put into practice, there's no point in saving some energy costs if customers are negatively impacted because all of a sudden there's limited or no service in a particular area at a particular time. There's a lot to consider here. That's obviously under consideration, but there's a lot of work to be done in this regard, I think.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (07:42):
Yeah, thanks for indeed, there is, but it is encouraging that some operators such as Telefonica, there are openly discussing strategies and implications. Well, this brings us very nicely to our audience poll. So over to you, Ray.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (07:57):
Thanks guy. Well, we asked the following question to our viewers, how can telco's most effectively reduce their energy consumption levels? Our Summit audience could vote for as many of the poll options as they thought were applicable. And what's really interesting from this year's results is just how little love was shown by our voters for the potential impact of ai. This is not what our bots predicted in last year's poll, the use of AI and data analytics for real-time ops management was voted as the most effective way in which telcos could reduce power consumption with 69% of respondents selecting that option. But that was last year. This year the option to increase the use of AI throughout the network attracted votes from just 46% of our voters. That is a genuine surprise for us humans as well as our AI assistants. And as you can see, our summit attendees are putting a lot of faith in the vendor community as they believe the telcos can best serve their green network aspirations by sourcing more power efficient technology to deploy in their networks. Now, one thing that didn't change from last year is that our audience still doesn't believe that shifting workloads to the private cloud will help reduce energy bills in a meaningful way.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (09:30):
Thanks very much, Ray. It's fascinating to see the year on year changes and how priorities shift. And thank you to everyone who voted in the poll. Well, each day of the summit also featured a live q and a show where our guests answered your questions, and these are also now available to view on demand. One of the many interesting questions we received on the first day of the summit concerned the speed of AI developments and the question asked, given the dramatic rate of advances in ai, what energy related innovations can be applied now and won't be out of date in a few months? When should telcos commit? And here's what our guests thought

Neil McRae, Juniper Networks (10:11):
Service providers need to be out there experimenting and learning so that they can make the right calls on what they should invest in, what they shouldn't invest in, and also understand where AI is going to make the biggest amount of difference for 'em. If

Diego Lopez, Telefonica (10:26):
We don't have the ultimate tools for making this happen. We do have the mindset and the methodologies for doing this. And so I don't see any risk in start committing right here, right now to whatever the technology can offer.

Beth Cohen, Luth Computer Specialists (10:45):
There's a lot of things that need to be done before it can be deployed out fully in the field in production. However, that should not stop any of the telcos from digging in, seeing what's there and more importantly, contributing

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (11:06):
Ray a very clear message from the panel there. Don't hang around, don't wait for the next big thing to be announced. Get started now and don't be afraid to experiment.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (11:15):
Yeah, absolutely. And there's more than one way for the operators to do this as well. They shouldn't all be trying to do the same r and d and replicating tasks. There's a lot to be learned from collaborative efforts via industry groups and forums, though some of those could also do with fitting new batteries and shifting up a gear or two with their efforts. But yes, in general and especially where AI is concerned, if you sit back and watch, you're going to find yourself very quickly behind the pack and missing out on important gains. And Telcos could help themselves by incentivizing staff to be more innovative. Of course,

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (11:54):
Yeah. Now that would be welcomed. Thank you, Ray. Collaborate, innovate, and keep at it. Well, we had an equally diverse set of questions for day two and one of the most popular areas concerned Open ran. One of our viewers asked, does open ran show any tangible improvement on RAN energy use? And can the RIC deliver savings or optimize performance? And here's what our guests had to say.

Joan Triay, Docomo Euro Labs & ETSI (12:21):
We also know that the radio units are the ones within the open ran that also contribute most to the energy consumption by the fact that we are with this open run, being able to disaggregate the network, decouple the radio units from the rest of the network, we can address the problems that we have there in a more particular manner without open run, that would not be so straightforward, I would say.

Sarat Puthenpura, ONF & Linux Foundation (12:51):
So the experiments that we did without touching the compromising or compromising the quality of service, we can easily cut 20% if you do it carefully using R based application. Six, absent predominantly our apps, which is sitting in non realtime work,

Francis Haysom, Appledore Research (13:11):
If the CSPs want the energy savings, they want the best innovators in the thing, they need to create the ecosystem and the procurement environment in which that innovation can occur.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (13:23):
Well, earlier we mentioned the importance of energy efficiency in the current three GP discussions around five GA and six G, and the same applies to Open interfaces, so many operators calling for action. Ray, do you think Open RAN can make a positive difference in terms of improved energy usage?

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (13:45):
Well, in a way that can be easy replicated rather than a unique one-off scenario, which is largely what we have seen to date eventually. Yes, I do. And I think the industry is getting closer, especially in terms of what can be done using the RAN intelligent controller or Rick and the associated X apps and R apps as mentioned by one of our speakers there. But there's still quite a lot of work to be done on the data sources required for such automated operations, how such apps co-exist and how they might impact each other. But organizations like TIP are making good progress here, as we heard from Richard McKenzie at BT last year, but we're not quite there yet, I don't think.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (14:32):
No. Well thank you Ray. I wonder how long we can get away with using the phrase. It's still early days, a few more years I reckon. And that concludes the Annual Green Network Summit next month. It's the return of the slice, our daily news and analysis show for MWC Barcelona. Any indicators of what to expect, Ray,

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (14:53):
I expect we'll hear quite a bit about network APIs and virtual ran developments, and I genuinely hope we hear and see more this year about the important green and network developments that got pushed into the background last year. But it will be hard to avoid all things ai and of course that is important as we've already been told Guy, this is the year of AG agentic ai and that will have a big role to play in key areas of telco operations and in the development of new services too. So bring it all on. I look forward to reporting on the developments from Tapas HQ on the show floor

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (15:35):
Tapas hq. You're hoping to attract the lunch crowd. Then well following MWC, our Summit series resumes with Telco as a platform only the second year for this summit, and the topic is already generating huge interest. So register now on our website for all the latest information from Ray and me, goodbye, and we will see you again soon.