TM Forum

India and the United Kingdom have launched the Indiaโ€“UK Connectivity and Innovation Centre to accelerate secure, AI-driven, and resilient telecom technologies over the next four years. The two governments committed an initial ยฃ24 millionโ€”roughly โ‚น250โ€“โ‚น282 crore depending on exchange ratesโ€”to fund applied research, joint testbeds, field trials, and standards contributions in emerging telecom domains. The investment concentrates on three pillars: AI in telecommunications, non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) for satellite and airborne connectivity, and telecoms cybersecurity with open, interoperable systems. The multi-year window aligns to the critical runway for 5Gโ€‘Advanced and early 6G experimentation.
Telecom Secretary Neeraj Mittal underscored that AI will be central to the next generation of networks, not an add-on. The direction aligns with industry momentum: 5G-Advanced is already introducing AI-enabled RAN and core features via 3GPP, while 6G initiatives under the ITU-R IMT-2030 framework envision AI-native control loops, sensing-assisted connectivity, and tight integration of compute and communications. India expects 6G trials to begin around 2028, with commercial deployments to follow. Operators that harden their AI and automation capabilities during 5G-Advanced will enter 6G with a competitive execution advantage.
The new AT&T IoT Marketplace turns complex IoT procurement and lifecycle management into a catalog-driven digital experience that aims to speed revenue and reduce operational friction for enterprises and partners. AT&T, working with Ericsson, introduced a digital eCommerce platform that unifies how IoT services are discovered, configured, contracted, provisioned, and billed. The Marketplace is powered by Ericssonโ€™s Digital Experience Platform alongside its Catalogue Manager and Order Care components. AT&T reports it has cut the time it takes to order certain fleet management services from hours to minutes, an indicator of the step-change in operational efficiency the Marketplace is designed to deliver.
Nokia has introduced a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) digital twin and AI-powered applications inside its Altiplano platform to give operators a unified view of active and passive assets and to improve reliability with faster, first-time fixes. The core launch centers on creating a digital twin of the FTTH network that stitches together live data from active elements (OLT/ONT, IP edge, customer premises equipment) with outside-plant passive infrastructure (ducts, cables, splitters) maintained in inventory and geospatial systems. Together, these tools target the highest-impact operational pain points: early anomaly detection, automated topology audits, faster root cause analysis, and improved first-time fix rates.
The AI value gap is wideningโ€”and itโ€™s now a strategy problem, not a tooling problem. Fresh research shows a small cohort of โ€œfuture-builtโ€ companies converting AI into material P&L impact while most firms lag despite sizable spend. BCGโ€™s 2025 assessment of 1,250 senior executives finds only 5% of companies have the capabilities to consistently generate outsized AI value, with 35% scaling and beginning to see benefits, and a full 60% reporting little to no financial impact to date.
AI is everywhere in telecom, yet most pilots never make it into production because the industryโ€™s data, tooling, and operating models are not ready for scaled automation. Recent industry research suggests that about 95% of AI pilots in telecom fail to scale beyond proofs of concept. Leaders are moving from pilots to platforms by embedding AI in the systems that run the business and anchoring every initiative to measurable outcomes. Telecom AI will not scale through pilots alone; it scales when embedded in the systems that run revenue, experience, and networks.
Telefรณnica is translating years of network automation into tangible Level 4 autonomous operations in targeted domainsโ€”an inflection point for service quality, cost, and speed at 5G scale. Under its Autonomous Network Journey (ANJ), Telefรณnica is aligning to the TM Forum Autonomous Networks framework and pushing selected processes to Level 4โ€”closed-loop autonomy with minimal human oversight. The company reports a 70% reduction in flapping-related service impact and removal of manual work in these incidents, advancing this use case to Level 4 maturity. The operator cites 80% faster analyses for planning, operations, and optimization; a 40% drop in capacity issues; more than 90% reduction in sites experiencing high load with widespread customer impact; and a 5% latency improvement via virtual optimization prior to rollout.
Microsoft is preparing to license Anthropicโ€™s Claude models for Microsoft 365, signaling a multi-model strategy that reduces exclusive reliance on OpenAI across Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. According to multiple reports, Microsoft plans to integrate Anthropicโ€™s Claude Sonnet 4 alongside OpenAIโ€™s models to power Microsoft 365 Copilot features, including content generation and slide design in PowerPoint. This is a notable pivot from a single-model default to a best-of-breed approach that routes tasks to the model that performs best for a given function. For enterprises, especially in regulated and mission-critical domains like telecom, the shift implies more resilience, better accuracy for specialized tasks, and new options to optimize for quality, cost, and latency.
Network APIs are redefining the telecom sector, enabling real-time services, secure mobile payments, IoT support, and cross-industry innovation. With projected market growth to $30B by 2030, telecom leaders are focusing on standardization, ecosystem collaboration, and developer engagement to unlock the full value of APIs in the 5G era.
The telecom industry is in the midst of a major shift from โ€œtelcoโ€ to โ€œtechcoโ€, with operators investing in AI, 5G, cloud computing, and digital services to compete with tech giants like Amazon and Google. At MWC 2025, leaders from e&, KDDI, MTN, and SK Telecom discussed their AI-driven strategies, including self-healing networks, smart city infrastructure, fintech expansion, and enterprise 5G solutions. As telcos embrace AI-powered automation and cloud-based innovations, they are redefining their role in the digital economy.
Singtel and Ericsson have partnered to launch an enhanced Network-as-a-Service solution aimed at streamlining network provisioning and service management for telcos and enterprises. By integrating Singtelโ€™s Paragon platform with Ericssonโ€™s Service Orchestration and Assurance, this collaboration offers a fully automated, API-enabled platform that accelerates the rollout of 5G and edge services, enabling CSPs to monetize new opportunities while improving service quality.

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