Press Release

The collaboration will advance Indosat’s AI Native TechCo vision, empowering it to better serve more than 100 million customers across its B2B and B2C segments

Companies to develop enterprise-grade AI solutions for customer service modernization, dynamic content generation and hyper-personalization, geospatial analytics and predictive modelling, augmented network and IT operations, and back-office transformation

Jakarta, June 14^th, 2024 – Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (“Indosat” or “IOH”) and Google Cloud today announced the expansion of their long-term strategic alliance, aimed at accelerating Indosat’s transformation from telco to AI Native TechCo. This collaboration will combine Indosat’s vast network, operational, and customer datasets with Google Cloud’s industry-leading unified AI stack to deliver exceptional experiences to over 100 million Indosat customers, as well as enterprise-grade AI and generative AI (GenAI) solutions for businesses across Indonesia.

AI agents and applications, when effectively grounded in a communications service provider’s securely managed and privacy-compliant data assets, can augment human capabilities with powerful multimodal data analysis, pattern recognition, and recommendations to unlock new revenue streams and efficiencies, and elevate the customer experience. Under this alliance, the companies’ joint innovation initiatives will therefore be focused on creating tailored AI and GenAI solutions to address unique opportunities and challenges in the Indonesian market. These include:

• Customer service modernization: Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI solutions will equip call center staff with GenAI tools to enhance their productivity and effectiveness. Specifically, these tools will provide live call transcription; recommended responses derived from knowledge bases; real-time conversation analysis; and post-call sentiment analysis, leading to faster, more accurate, and more effective resolution of customer queries. In addition, GenAI-powered conversational agents will be built and deployed to offer self-service options across Indosat’s digital touchpoints. These agents will be capable of seamlessly switching between topics, addressing complex inquiries, supporting transactions, and operating 24/7.

• Dynamic content generation and hyper-personalization: Creative AI agents with multimodal and multilingual capabilities will promote relevant offerings based on a customer’s profile and specific needs. When integrated with customer relationship management and content management systems, they will assist marketers by identifying high-value leads, generating rich content (i.e., text, images, and videos), and engaging customers across channels with personalized offers and messages.

• Geospatial analytics and predictive modelling: Google Cloud’s custom machine learning (ML) models, trained on Indosat’s extensive operational datasets, will empower organizations across industries to make data-driven decisions around optimal site selection for strategic expansion; optimize asset management and maintenance based on real-time location and condition data; and model potential natural disaster scenarios to develop proactive mitigation strategies. Indosat will also leverage these tools to identify areas with high growth potential but limited network coverage, informing its strategic decisions to expand network capacity and bridge the digital divide between urban and remote communities.

• Augmented network and IT operations: Self-optimizing systems that are powered by custom ML and multimodal models will predict ROI from capital investments; reduce energy consumption; optimize asset design and utilization; and proactively detect and resolve issues. This results in cost savings, more sustainable operations, and improved service reliability. For example, AI can dynamically adjust cell tower power levels during off-peak hours, assist field technicians in rapidly diagnosing and resolving faults based on their verbal and visual inputs, and intelligently reroute network traffic to avoid faulty components while repairs are being made. Additionally, GenAI-powered agents that assist with code generation, completion, and troubleshooting will significantly increase IT teams’ development and delivery velocity, leading to faster time-to-market and time-to-value for reliable software products and services.
• Back office transformation: Custom GenAI-powered enterprise search applications will enable HR, legal, procurement, and finance teams to instantly access the precise information they need to excel in their job roles. By simply asking questions in natural language, they will receive accurate, contextually relevant answers or summaries from vast amounts of unstructured data, such as policies, contracts, financial reports, or employee records, thereby eliminating the need for manual searches, accelerating decision-making, and boosting overall productivity.

In addition to implementing these solutions across Indosat’s business operations, Indosat and Google Cloud will also explore joint go-to-market initiatives to empower Indonesia’s digital ecosystem. They will look to provide micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME), startups, enterprises, and public sector organizations with access to these solutions, alongside Google Cloud’s AI-optimized infrastructure, unified data platform, and unified AI development platform.

Vikram Sinha, President Director and Chief Executive Officer, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, said: “As Indonesia steps into the digital era, we remain committed to Indosat’s larger purpose of empowering Indonesia by providing businesses and individuals with the essential tools and technologies needed for success. Our collaboration with Google Cloud is not just a pivotal milestone for Indosat, but also a significant stride in our mission to transform into an AI Native TechCo. Together, we will harness the full potential of cloud and AI to drive innovation, create new opportunities, and propel Indonesia’s digital economy forward.”

Karan Bajwa, Vice President, Asia Pacific, Google Cloud, said: “Indosat’s early adoption of cloud-native architectures and an AI-ready data analytics platform exemplifies its forward-thinking approach. This strong foundation, established through our collaboration from 2021, is now enabling Indosat to pursue a wide range of high-value ML and GenAI use cases at scale—and we’re excited by the possibilities. These initiatives will not only demonstrate the transformative power of AI in telecommunications, but also serve as a blueprint for other sectors seeking to harness this technology to drive growth and nationwide impact.”

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Anil Kollipara, Vice President of Product Management at Spirent Communications

Check the numbers, and 5G network adoption looks to be absolutely humming. According to GSMA Intelligence, there were 1.6 billion 5G connections worldwide by the end of 2023. All told, more than 261 operators offered commercial 5G services as of February 2024, representing the fastest new network generation rollout ever. Of course, Telecom Ramblings readers know that those figures need an asterisk. … [visit site to read more]

Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
Subscribe to our FREE weekly email newsletters for the latest telecom info in developing and emerging markets globally.

News

A contract worth billions of dollars will provide U.S. Navy agencies with T-Mobile equipment for years to come

This article was originally released by our sister publication Broadband Communities

T-Mobile has been selected for a $2.67 billion defence contract that will make them a wireless solutions provider for the U.S. Navy for the next decade.

The contract replaces a previous iteration, known as Spiral 3, which expired in May.

With the new Spiral 4 contract, all agencies under the U.S. Department of Defence umbrella will have the ability to place orders for wireless services and equipment for the next 10 years with T-Mobile.

An announcement from T-Mobile, released Thursday, explained how the company has grown its range of services for government operations since 2017, when the provider began participating in Spiral 3.

T-Mobile’s release cited the company’s advanced 5G network solutions, which includes applications that can “meet specific performance needs of government agencies,” as an advantage.

David Bezzant, a VP of sales with T-Mobile’s government division, said the Spiral 4 contract award is a testament to T-Mobile’s network and emphasis on solutions.

“With a cutting-edge product portfolio, a proven track record and a clear vision for the future, we’re ready to take government innovation to the next level,” he said, according to T-Mobile’s release. “It’s an honor to serve those who serve this nation.”

Major carriers like T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T were all involved with the Spiral 3 contract vehicle, which allowed agencies to place orders against the contract.

T-Mobile’s release called the Spiral 4 contract a ” comprehensive, multiple-award contract” that includes solutions for voice, data, fixed wireless access, Internet of Things and mobility management.

In the future, according to T-Mobile, the government could also leverage the company’s partnership with Starlink.

In January, T-Mobile celebrated the launch of Starlink satellites with Direct to Cell technology.

According to T-Mobile, the milestone, part of the Coverage Above and Beyond Initiative, “aims to bring connectivity nearly everywhere in the U.S.” for T-Mobile customers.

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter 

Also in the news:
Freshwave to deploy small cells in Manchester for VMO2
SGP.32: A reality check on the latest remote SIM provisioning standard
Telefónica Germany and Ericsson renew core network partnership  

Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
Subscribe to our FREE weekly email newsletters for the latest telecom info in developing and emerging markets globally.

Four infrastructure projects, three in the southern hemisphere and one not so far from the equator: … [visit site to read more]

News

The deal extends their initial core partnership, which first began back in 2020

Ericsson and Telefónica Germany have agreed to extend their core network partnership. 

The company’s dual-mode 5G Core and cloud infrastructure solutions already provide mobile connectivity to 45 million O2 Telefónica subscribers, covering 5G Standalone (SA), 5G non-Standalone (NSA), 4G, and 2G.  

The agreement, the companies say, will allow them to increase innovation and functionality in the core network in preparation for future demand. 

“With Ericsson, we have embarked on a cloud-native transformation journey and are now going to develop it further by expanding our portfolio and capabilities towards network slicing, automation, and API access. This allows us to roll out new features faster and without temporary maintenance breaks – an important step towards the network of the future,” said Mallik Rao, Chief Technology & Information Officer of O2 Telefonica in a company press release. 

“Our deep partnership with O2 Telefónica in Germany has been a significantly rewarding one from the start,” added Daniel Leimbach Ericsson’s Western Europe Head of Customer Unit. 

“Meeting its challenge to deliver a cloud-native core network for its 45 million subscribers while ensuring it was flexible enough to evolve in line with its strategy meant breaking new ground across a range of disciplines,” he continued. 

According to the companies, the existing core network partnership between the two companies is already delivering exciting new benefits for customers. For example, back in May, the two companies completed a world-first with their In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU) of network functions in the core network’s user plane. This essentially allows the network’s software to be upgraded without any downtime or service disruption for customers – something previously unthinkable without a cloud-native core.  

Speaking of being cloud-native, last month, Telefonica Germany announced a monumental deal to move 1 million of the company’s 5G customers to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. In doing so, it will become the first operator in the world to move its 5G core network to AWS’s cloud infrastructure. a 

Join us at this year’s Connected Germany event, 5-6 November in Munich. Get discounted tickets here! 

Also in the news:
Telstra’s network APIs to be added to Vonage platform
e& under investigation over PPF acquisition
Elisa brings smart solar energy management to the Åland Islands

Three bits of regional connectivity news from around the US worth catching up with at midweek: … [visit site to read more]

MTN South Africa and Huawei co-hosted the IP Day Summit themed « Net5.5G Network Development.”

The summit brought together top experts from MTN’s network planning and Huawei’s data communications teams. They discussed global network construction concepts, latest innovative technologies, and business insights in the IP field, aiming to further improve MTN’s network resilience and service experience.

At the summit, MTN and Huawei signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for strategic cooperation on Net5.5G. Through this MoU, they will jointly promote the large-scale application of key capabilities of Net5.5G, such as 400GE, SRv6, slicing, and the Network Digital Map, to continuously improve MTN’s service experience and network availability in the mobile and B2B fields, and improve its O&M efficiency.

Rami Farah, CTO of MTN SA, said that innovation is important for MTN and forms a key pillar in MTN network strategy.

Zoltan Miklos, General Manager of Access Planning and Architecture, MTN SA, said that healthy and stable networks have long been the focus of MTN. He pointed out that the application of SRv6 and Network Digital Map has helped MTN build an IP transport network with optimal experience. He also noted that in the cloud and 5G era, MTN still faces a range of challenges in terms of service and network operations, security, reliability, and other areas, and that MTN looks forward to deepening cooperation with Huawei.

Feng Su, President of Huawei’s IP Marketing and Solution Sales Dept., emphasised that Net5.5G is the future of IP networks and that Huawei has made long-term investments in ultra-broadband products, network servitisation, network intelligence, and more. He added that Huawei looks forward to helping MTN build a leading IP transport network featuring ultra-broadband, high reliability, and ultimate experience so as to help MTN achieve greater business success.

Xu Huan, Vice President of Metro Router Domain of Huawei’s Data Communication Product Line, said Huawei will work with MTN to accelerate the commercial use of the next-generation IP transport network under the guidance of the Net5.5G target network.

According to the MoU, MTN and Huawei will continue to define the Net5.5G target network and support the sustainable development of MTN’s mobile, enterprise, and home broadband services. The cooperation between MTN and Huawei will set a good example in the region, accelerate the implementation of new technologies and applications, and drive the sustainable development of regional carriers.

Click here to read more.