No prizes for guessing that AI stole everyone’s attention at Digital Transformation World in Copenhagen this year. In every keynote and session, the two letter acronym left the lips of every single person that took a stage.

It is no wonder that AI dominated the show after so much fanfare already this year. The much hyped technology promises so particularly to birth new use cases that can save costs and generate fresh revenues.

Axiata Group CEO and Executive Director, Dr Hans Wijayasuriya said in his keynote that the telecoms industry can double its size to US$2 trillion dollars if it can “move from connectivity to a world where we sell end-to-end solutions”. He pointed to AI being a key technology to digitally transform operators into technology companies with this sort of scale and capability. He warned MNOs that do not jump on AI with haste, will be left behind to languish. 

On the same panel, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison President Director and CEO Vikram Sinha and Jio Platforms boss Kiran Thomas pointed to how AI can generate GDP growth for Indonesia and India respectively.

TM Forum CEO Nik Willetts pointed out in his speech that only a handful of MNOs are seeing bottom line increases from AI, but added many operators are still early in their digital transformation journeys. 

Autonomous networks

In the telecoms space, automation of networks has been viewed as an eventuality to cut down costs but also create new services, and is a key use case for AI in telecoms.

Bradley Mead (pictured, right), Ericsson Head of Managed Network Services, said “autonomous networks is ultimately where we need to go” as an industry, but acknowledged it is a long journey but “starting it is vital”.

The ultimate goal for all sectors tapping into AI is to achieve ‘Level 5’ said Mead, which means full automation. This is considered the ‘holy grail’ for all automation projects, regardless of industry – Level 5 is akin to a fully driverless car with no need for a steering wheel, or a network that runs completely by itself with no engineer.  

“Hopefully it [Level 5] will unlock new revenue streams for operators because ultimately, that’s what we all need for the industry to be successful,” said Mead.­

Sunil Gupta (pictured, left), Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB)’s Head of Digital Delivery, spoke about the challenges and opportunities of navigating autonomous networks in Malaysia’s singular 5G network.

Malaysia has a rather unique telecoms landscape, as the government decreed all six MNOs must equally share a single 5G network run by DNB, which was set up in 2021 to handle the deployment.

Gupta explained this is a Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) set-up, a key innovation in 5G that enables multiple operators to share common infrastructure while maintaining individual services and brands.

The idea was that this would cut down on expensive deployments, reduce rollout time and of course adapt to new technologies such as AI at speed. But in the time that Malaysia’s government has taken to strike deals with its operators, peers in Asia-Pacific such as Thailand and Indonesia have launched commercial 5G services.

The government had been steadfast in its strategy, betting there will be long-term returns from of its unique plan.

Gupta stressed that having operators share the same infrastructure and keeping their wealth of data private from each other was a key challenge.

To tackle this, DNB with its exclusive vendor Ericsson pushed through with the network being a “machine or data driven operation,” said Gupta. Through using AI technology, DNB was able to predict in real time where problems on the network would arise – one example was finding out why calls were being dropped in a particular location – and safeguard against it to maintain high levels of service.

Gupta revealed two main targets with its AI-boosted network: to provide enterprise network slicing and autonomous network energy management.

Levels of AI

At another stage, Telkomsel’s Director of Networks Indra Mardiatna (pictured, above) hailed the Indonesian operator’s successful implementation of autonomous network technology, highlighting benefits such as customer complaint handling, reduction of manual tasks, and improved NPS scores.

Mardiatna detailed how Telkomsel’s dive into automating its network has made processes smoother.

He pointed out the “legacy” way of handling a customer complaint had too many steps for subscribers, taking up valuable time. Now, Telkomsel customers only have to answer two questions, with analysis of their query coming “automatically from the network” including the root cause.

From this, Mardiatna claimed user complaint handling had improved by 88%, and that Telkomsel’s NPS score is 20% above the industry average.

Mardiatna noted that Christmas, Ramadan and New Year’s were three recent events when Telkomsel experienced heavy network traffic. These special days on the calendar used to require a lot of manual tasks to be completed to ensure the network ran smoothly.

“Previously when we experienced a push in threshold level, someone would have to execute manually an automation request, but now this can be done by machine,” said Mardiatna.

Telkomsel’s network was “90% automated” during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan for crowd management, as worshippers gathered daily at Mosques to pray. Mardiatna stated this worked six times better than having an engineer manually divert traffic to other parts of the network. This led to a 20% decrease in customer complaints, noted Mardiatna.

Looking ahead, Telkomsel is aiming to achieve level 4 AI automation in 2025. But Mardiatna acknowledged a few key challenges must be overcome to hit the target of having a “zero touch network” – a network that can heal and adjust itself based on the data it collects.

The first challenge that many operators have highlighted is quality of data and improving data validity. Mardiatna said due to poor data in the early days of using AI, the operator saw results that were a complete “disaster”.

Second, was cost for equipment such as GPUs to install into data centres to tap into AI software. Finally, third was reskilling staff, as the operator has “a lot of legacy telco people” who need convincing an autonomous network is the way forward.

“Despite all of these challenges, we believe autonomous networks will unlock all possibilities. We can achieve more and we believe also we move forward together,” concluded Mardiatna.

EXA Infrastructure has been working hard to develop new paths to and through markets in the Middle East, and yesterday they unveiled plans for a brand new alternative. They are teaming up with SOCAR Fiber to develop a new terrestrial route across Türkiye to Georgia. … [visit site to read more]

A previously little-known company with the interesting name of Natural Environment Solutions (NES) has announced that it has launched a 5 MW data centre in Pune, India, marking its entry into the country’s fast-booming data centre industry.

The company says it plans to scale up to over 100 MW of data centre capacity across the country in the next three years, capitalising on the country’s fast growth in digital infrastructure and regulatory support for data centre investments (which has been reported here a number of times).

NES says it is dedicated to revolutionising data centre infrastructure development, optimising efficiency and cost-effectiveness through advanced automation and digitisation.

NES founder and CEO Umesh Sahay is quoted by India’s Economic Times as saying that the company is actively securing long-term power supply agreements with utility generators, ensuring cost-effective, environmentally responsible operations aligned with stringent sustainability standards.

He also says that the company’s modern data centres adhere to global regulations, integrating cutting-edge security measures to protect data integrity against evolving cyberthreats and that the company’s focus on edge computing “responds to the growing demand for ultra-low latency and high bandwidth solutions crucial for hyper-personalised customer experiences and the rapid adoption of 5G and new-age applications”.

India’s data centre capacity has doubled between 2020 and 2023, highlighting its emergence as a prime hub for technological advancement, according to the company, about which little information seems so far to be available.

However, Umesh Sahay is also a founder and CMD of Entrepreneurial Facilitation Centre, a leading real estate enterprise offering managed office space solutions for entrepreneurs, small and medium enterprises and large corporations.

India’s big three private operators, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, have put up their tariffs. This is the first time in three years they have done so. It was, however, widely expected.

Reuters reports that Bharti Airtel plans to raise tariffs by 10% to 21%, Jio by 13% to 27%, and Vodafone Idea by 10% to 23% across a number of prepaid and postpaid plans, starting on 3 July for Jio and Airtel and 4 July for Vodafone.

Massive investment in 5G rollout is one obvious reason for the price rises. Spectrum auctions and infrastructure spending probably made some sort of price correction inevitable. Reuters quotes an analyst estimate that 5G rollout alone would have cost the companies around US$18 billion, with only a modest return on investment likely to date. Indeed, India’s Economic Times says that Jio and Airtel have been offering free 5G services in a bid to attract customers to 5G.

Of course Vodafone Idea hasn’t reached 5G rollout stage yet, though it has outlined an aggressive capex plan to expand 4G and roll out 5G.

Another important factor has been the Jio-led price war that forced competitors to keep prices low. This has made India very cheap for subscribers but has hit operator ARPU.

The predicted rises in ARPU as a result of the new tariffs will undoubtedly help. At the moment Vodafone Idea is behind with ARPU of 146 rupees (US$1.75) in the first quarter of the year compared to Jio’s 182 rupees (US$2.18) and Airtel’s 209 rupees (US$2.50). Reuters says Airtel’s higher ARPU is a result of its recent strategy to focus on higher-paying subscribers. 

India’s Economic Times adds that an analysis of the post-tariff-hike prices shows that Reliance Jio’s popular prepaid plans are as much as 20% more affordable than the similar prepaid plans offered by its competitors. It also seems to have an edge in the postpaid segment.

Nevertheless, the hope is that a united front on tariffs will ease pressure on the operators’ balance sheets, notably that of Vodafone Idea, which has quite a lot of spending to do to catch up with its rivals in 5G – and 4G – provision.

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At Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2024, James Chen, President, Carrier Business at Huawei, gave a keynote speech entitled « Secondary 5G Innovation: Charting a New Course for Business Success ».

While primary innovation unleashes tech dividends, secondary innovation accelerates business success – and there are numerous examples of this from throughout history.

The compass was invented in China, making it possible for humankind to travel the sea. In the 16th century, Magellan completed his first round-the-world voyage. Later, with the help of high-speed gyroscopes, navigation developed rapidly, achieving the current annual global maritime trade of US$500 billion.

As early as the days of ancient Greece, the prototype steam engine was invented, and in the 18th century Britain’s James Watt successfully improved the concept, leading to the first industrial revolution. With the invention of internal combustion engine and motor, the automobile industry achieved prosperity.

If we look at mobile communications, after the Italian scientist Marconi completed transoceanic wireless communications, with the invention of mobile phones, mobile communications completely opened up the development of mobile communications. By the end of 2023, the number of global mobile users reached 8.6 billion.

This shows that primary innovation releases technological dividends, and secondary innovation accelerates business prosperity. At present, 5G is at a historic moment of secondary innovation.

Secondary 5G innovation will supercharge experience, business, and monetization

ICT technology, represented by 5G, is accelerating its integration into all fields and links of China’s economy and society. China has built the world’s largest and most advanced 5G network. As of April, the number of 5G users in China had exceeded 880 million, accounting for 52% of the world’s total. China’s 5G base stations account for two-thirds of the world’s global base stations, and the number of 5G IoT connections exceeded 30 million. China is leading the world in terms of 5G development scale and quality.

Just as Watt’s improved steam engine opened the industrial revolution, China’s secondary 5G innovation accelerates business monetization and opens a new stage of business success from three aspects: user scenarios, network-cloud-intelligence synergy, and ecosystem collaboration.

Example: Translating inspiration into opportunity

In Kaifeng, Henan Province, there is a famous blind date show. Many young people come to sign up to find a partner, speaking up bravely to show their affections. When the show begins, the walls, the hills, and the opposite teahouse are all crowded with enthusiastic tourists, and the front row is crowded with live streamers.

Many live streamers will use multiple mobile phones, at the same time connected to multiple livestreaming platforms. If network stuttering occurs, they may lose followers. The streamers’ top concern is ensuring that they can live stream among thousands of mobile phones onsite, with high-definition, non-stuttering images. Chinese operators have found the answer to this scenario.

Scenario innovation: Reinventing the value of user groups and scenarios to accelerate multi-metric network monetization

To meet the differentiated requirements of live broadcast for network experience, 15 carriers in China have subscribed to live broadcast packages that provide heavy traffic and guarantee live video upload experience, greatly increasing their ARPU.

There are four considerations for developing live broadcast packages: first, the potential customers must be found quickly; second, the package is accurate; third, the experience is stable; fourth, the user can stay. With the large uplink and preferential network access capabilities of 5G, operators meet the specific requirements of live broadcasters in an end-to-end manner.

Live broadcast scenarios open the door to upstream network monetization. With new capabilities such as service-level acceleration, and deterministic experience, we can gradually extend to more scenarios, more people, and more applications, reconstruct the spatial and temporal value of people in scenarios, and accelerate multi-dimensional network monetization.

Integrated innovation: New Calling as a new entry to information services with network-cloud-intelligence synergy

The new call is one of the hot spots for the second innovation of 5G services: 5G + cloud + AI. Through the collaboration of network, cloud, and intelligence, converge and innovate to build a new entry point for digital services.

Its original innovation intention, based on AIGC, focuses on fun for young people, big subtitles for the elderly, real-time translation for overseas business travelers, and ultimately on ensuring a good product experience.

Of course, business success requires continuous incubation of high-value scenarios and high-quality applications, refined operation assurance, and continuous innovation of Internet marketing.

The new call service uses the dialup disk of a mobile phone as the entry, providing a HD interactive call experience, and continuously evolving to providing all-scenario information services.

The development of new calls goes through two phases. In the first phase, AIGC is used to build products based on HD call experience and expand the number of subscribers.

In the second phase, high-quality applications are built quickly by incubating high-value 2C and 2B scenarios. In the future, multiple call products will be integrated to build a full-scenario information service portal through network, cloud, and intelligent collaboration.

Cloud mobile phones have achieved a « real-like » experience. The next steps are for image resolution to be upgraded to 2K, and latency gradually reduced to 100 ms – in effect achieving the real experience.

In terms of operation, Zhejiang Cloud T Card launched one SIM card = cloud mobile phone + sponsored traffic + cloud disk + rights, and the cloud mobile phone business developed rapidly. In the next phase, Huawei will work with carriers to continuously develop ecosystem and product evolution, incubate new AI applications.

Integrated innovation: IoV with network-cloud-intelligence synergy

Unmanned delivery vehicles can flexibly avoid vehicles and pedestrians and actively identify traffic signals. More than 1000 such delivery vehicles will soon be deployed in Shenzhen. Unmanned delivery vehicles perform video backhaul and remote control through 5G networks, which will bring new opportunities for operators.

In the next five years, 100 million new online vehicles will be added worldwide every year.

In the passenger car market, 4G connectivity remains the mainstream. As cars become more and more intelligent, 5G is overwhelming, and mobile phones, homes, and cars will be deeply integrated. The high-performance eMBB module and the RedCap cost-effective module can meet the high-end and low-end connection requirements of automobile enterprises respectively.

In the commercial unmanned vehicle market, 5G large uplink has met the requirements for 1080p HD video backhaul. QoS and slicing will further ensure video backhaul and remote control.

Integrated innovation: IoVT with network-cloud-intelligence synergy

RedCap can provide the connection capability with optimal performance and cost. Currently, the core, module, and device ecosystem of RedCap is mature, and the industry traffic package has been successfully implemented.

In terms of industry, the RedCap Industry Summit was recently held in Suzhou to discuss the expansion of 5G IoT and build billion-level connections. In terms of the market, Huawei will continue to build standard products that can be quickly replicated and provide continuous coverage of 5G networks.

Collaborative innovation: E2E industry collaboration boosts video service traffic

Currently, whether consumers watch short videos, long videos, or video calls, the resolution is 540p or 720p. At a recent forum in Shanghai entitled “Enjoy HD China: AI era mobile video high-quality development forum”, Huawei proposed the « 1080P silent opening » initiative to improve consumer experience, enhance VIP user stickiness, and make full use of China’s leading network capabilities.

The number of naked-eye 3D terminals is also growing rapidly, and the 3D content ecosystem is becoming mature. We hope to promote further breakthroughs in 3D content, technologies, and experiences through multi-industry alliances to achieve win-win results.

Advancing from 5G to 5.5G to unlock more business opportunities

Leading operators are moving from 5G to 5G-A. Over 30 operators have completed 5G-A technical verification and 15 operators have started commercial deployment.

5G-A enables smart bicycles to move towards vehicle-road collaboration and expands the business space from connectivity to cloud. 5G-A supports passive IoT and opens up 100 billion new IoT spaces.

5G business success is not achieved overnight. Instead, it involves exploration, practice, and innovation. Huawei is willing to work with operators and ecosystem partners to promote secondary 5G innovation and jointly usher in a new stage of 5G business success through scenario innovation, convergence innovation, and cooperative innovation.