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Telco Cloud

Telco cloud refers to the cloud-native infrastructure operators use to run network functions as software, rather than on dedicated hardware — spanning private clouds, public-cloud partnerships, and hybrid models. It is the foundation for virtualized cores, cloud-native RAN, automation, and the agility 5G standalone demands. A defining trend is the deepening relationship between operators and hyperscalers, who increasingly host or support network workloads, raising strategic questions about control, cost, and dependency. For operators, telco cloud strategy shapes how flexible, scalable, and cost-efficient their networks can be; for vendors and hyperscalers, it’s a major battleground. This channel covers telco cloud across private, public, and hybrid models — cloud-native network functions, operator-hyperscaler partnerships, and the platforms involved — with analysis of how cloud is reshaping operator architecture, economics, and competitive dynamics.

5G Testing and Assurance in the Cloud Era, with Spirent’s Steve Douglas

Appledore Podcast
Patrick Kelly talks with Spirent's Head of Strategy, Stephen Douglas, on the nature of testing and assurance for telcos in the cloud era. At least, that's where they start... An informative two-way discussion follows - a useful primer for lots of what will be on show at MWC24. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Satellites as Cell Towers: Redefining Mobile Communication

Satellites as Cell Towers: Redefining Mobile Communication | TeckNexus
Uncover how satellites are redefining the role of traditional cell towers, enhancing mobile communication, and bridging the gap in global connectivity.

Which 5G Stocks to invest in? Who are the leading 5G companies?

Which 5G Stocks to invest in? Who are the leading 5G companies?
Investors seeking to maximize their profits from the potential of 5G should consider a multi-pronged approach and invest in companies that provide 5G network equipment, tower infrastructure, semiconductors, and hyperscalers as well as 5G mobile network operators. Here are the top companies across the sectors that are leading global public/private network rollouts.

Private Networks, 5G Magazine

Private Networks, 5G Magazine, Dec 2023 Edition
Explore the Private Network Edition of 5G Magazine, your guide to the latest in private 5G/LTE and CBRS networks. This edition spotlights 11 award categories including private 5G/LTE leader, neutral host leader, and rising startups. It features insights from industry leaders like Jason Wallin of John Deere and an analysis of RADCOM's 5G analytics. Covering sectors from manufacturing to healthcare and sustainability, it's a comprehensive read for those interested in the evolving landscape of private networks.

5G Growth Soars: Ericsson Predicts Over 5 Billion Subscriptions by 2029

5G and LTE Private Network
This article delves into the recent Ericsson Mobility Report, highlighting the robust growth of 5G technology with predictions of over 5.3 billion subscriptions by 2029 and a significant increase in average data usage per smartphone.

AWS Re: Invent Key Highlights

Whether you're a novice or an expert in cloud computing, the AWS Re: Invent conference offers insightful and useful knowledge. The conference is a event for anybody wishing to stay up to date on the newest trends and advancements in cloud computing, with its focus on innovation, networking, and education.

Cloud, Connectivity, Careers and Challenges: A Conversation with Steve Gleave of Microsoft

5G Talent Talk with Carrie Charles
Technological innovation is happening nonstop. You need to keep learning to stay on top of things and avoid getting left behind. In this episode, Carrie Charles sits down with Steve Gleave, Marketing Director in the Strategic Missions and Technologies Group at Microsoft. He talks about Microsoft’s Azure for Operators and how it helps service providers navigate the intersection of AI, cloud network, and modern connected applications. Steve also explains why hyperscalers and telco companies make good partners, why employers should prioritize hybrid setups in a post-pandemic world, the best solutions in retaining the best talents, and the right approaches in de-stressing a work environment.

When disaster strikes – maintaining network functionality in the face of unexpected events

5G Techritory Podcasts
In this session, our panel of experts delved into the critical actions that need to be taken to ensure networks can maintain their functionality and performance in the wake of unforeseen events or disruptions. From physical infrastructure attacks to cyber threats at the application level, they explored the potential threats that can jeopardize network operations. Moreover, our panelists discussed a range of solutions including backup infrastructure, dynamic resource allocation, disaster recovery plans, drills, as well as strategies for enhancing network resilience, minimizing downtime, and effectively responding to and recovering from unexpected events.

The Role of Cloud and Generative AI in the Telco Industry with Ishwar Parulkar

5G Talent Talk with Carrie Charles
Cultivating the workforce of tomorrow begins with embracing emerging technologies today. Join us in this eye-opening episode with special guest, Ishwar Parulkar, the Chief Technologist for Telecom and Edge Cloud at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Today, Ishwar takes us on a journey through the fascinating landscape of emerging technologies and their profound impact on the Telco industry. He touches on the evolution of Telco, software-defined networking, 5G, and mobile edge computing, providing a unique perspective on the industry's rapid transformation. Ishwar also explores the impact of generative AI on the workforce and emphasizes the importance of upskilling and retraining. He highlights the need for awareness, education, partnerships, and a shift in mindset to navigate the transformative wave that generative AI and cloud technologies bring. Tune in now and be part of the exciting transformation happening at the intersection of technology and Telecom.

Ericsson, AWS, and Hitachi Showcase Smart Factory Potential with Private 5G Networks

Ericsson works with AWS and Hitachi America R&D to showcase smart factory potential
Utilizing private 5G wireless networks, the collaboration between Ericsson, AWS and Hitachi America R&D emphasizes the transformative power of real-time digital video, AI, and edge-to-cloud solutions, showcasing a future where operational efficiency, product excellence, and optimized supply chains redefine smart manufacturing.

CAMARA Project: API-Driven Seamless Access to Telco Network Capabilities

CAMARA Project - Powering Seamless Access to Telco Network Capabilities _ TeckNexus
Welcome to the era of 5G revolution with the CAMARA Project. This initiative exposes telco network capabilities via APIs, simplifying network complexity and providing benefits across telco operators and countries. It's transforming the very fabric of telecom networks into robust service platforms, opening the door for enhanced service capabilities and fresh revenue streams for telecom providers. Dive into this article to learn about the CAMARA Project's journey, its approach towards standardization and simplification, and its vision for the future. Explore now!

Investor interest in Arrcus Grows as Hitachi Ventures is latest to join Series D

Arrcus, the hyperscale networking software company and a leader in core, 5G/edge and multi-cloud routing and switching, today announced a significant new investment from Hitachi Ventures, the venture arm of Hitachi, for an additional closing of its Series D. This new investment showcases growing investor interest in Arrcus from strategic and corporate venture groups. This infusion of capital will empower Arrcus to accelerate its growth, expand market reach, and continue delivering cost-effective and transformational networking solutions to customers worldwide.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is ‘Telco Cloud,’ and how is it different from regular cloud computing?
Telco Cloud refers to cloud computing infrastructure specifically built or adapted to run telecom network functions, distinguishing it from general-purpose public cloud platforms that businesses across many industries use for ordinary computing needs like web hosting or data storage. The key difference is that telecom network functions often have far stricter requirements around latency, reliability, and real-time performance than typical enterprise cloud workloads, since a delay or failure in a network function can directly disrupt live calls, data sessions, or critical infrastructure services for potentially millions of subscribers simultaneously. Telco Cloud platforms are engineered specifically to meet these more demanding requirements, whether built by traditional telecom vendors, run on a major public cloud provider’s infrastructure, or some hybrid combination of both approaches.
Why are major hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft, and Google increasingly involved in Telco Cloud?
Major hyperscalers have increasingly built telecom-specific offerings, like Microsoft’s Azure for Operators and Google Cloud’s telecom-focused infrastructure, recognizing that operators represent a substantial, largely untapped customer base for cloud computing services beyond the hyperscalers’ traditional enterprise customer base. For operators, partnering with an established hyperscaler can reduce the cost and complexity of building and maintaining their own data center infrastructure from scratch, while gaining access to the hyperscaler’s broader expertise in cloud computing and AI infrastructure. This represents a notable shift in industry dynamics, since these partnerships position hyperscalers as increasingly important infrastructure partners, a role traditionally filled almost entirely by telecom-specific equipment vendors like Ericsson, Nokia, and Huawei.
What does the shift from ‘cloud-native’ to ‘AI-native’ infrastructure actually mean?
The shift from cloud-native to AI-native describes infrastructure designed from the ground up to run AI workloads efficiently alongside traditional network functions, rather than treating AI as a separate, bolted-on capability running on infrastructure originally designed purely for conventional network functions. This involves incorporating specialized AI-optimized hardware, like GPUs, directly into the telco cloud platform’s design, and building software architectures specifically capable of supporting increasingly autonomous AI agents that can monitor and manage network operations directly. Industry vendors, including Huawei with its TICC and AgenticCore platforms, have specifically marketed offerings around this AI-native framing, positioning it as the next meaningful evolution of telco cloud architecture beyond the original cloud-native virtualization shift.
What challenges do operators face when migrating network functions to Telco Cloud?
Migrating network functions to telco cloud infrastructure presents several recurring challenges. Ensuring virtualized functions actually meet the strict performance and reliability requirements telecom services demand requires careful testing and validation, since a function that performs adequately in a general-purpose cloud environment might not automatically meet the more demanding latency standards telecom-grade services require. Integration across multiple cloud environments and vendors, particularly for operators using a mix of their own infrastructure and one or more hyperscaler partnerships, adds meaningful operational complexity. There’s also a workforce dimension, since network engineering teams historically focused on managing dedicated hardware need different skills to effectively manage cloud-based, software-defined infrastructure.
How does Telco Cloud relate to Open RAN and network slicing?
Telco Cloud provides the underlying computing infrastructure that both Open RAN and network slicing depend on to actually function in practice. Open RAN’s disaggregated, multi-vendor radio network components frequently run as software on telco cloud infrastructure rather than dedicated hardware, meaning a robust telco cloud platform is often a practical prerequisite for a successful Open RAN deployment. Network slicing similarly depends on telco cloud’s flexible, virtualized infrastructure to actually create and manage multiple distinct virtual networks running on shared physical resources, since the dynamic resource allocation slicing requires is fundamentally a cloud computing capability rather than something a fixed, dedicated hardware architecture could practically support at the same level of flexibility.
What’s a concrete example of an AI-native telco cloud platform in deployment today?
Huawei’s TICC, short for Telecom Intelligent Cloud Core, and its accompanying AgenticCore platform represent a concrete example of vendors building infrastructure specifically designed to support autonomous AI agents managing network operations directly, alongside more traditional virtualized network functions, on shared underlying infrastructure. These platforms are designed to support increasingly sophisticated AI capabilities, including agents that can independently monitor network performance, predict and respond to emerging issues, and make operational adjustments with less direct human oversight than earlier generations of network management software required. While still relatively early in broader commercial deployment, these AI-native offerings reflect the direction major telecom equipment vendors are actively pushing their telco cloud product lines toward.
Do operators build their own Telco Cloud infrastructure, or rely entirely on vendors?
It varies considerably by operator and specific use case. Some larger, well-resourced operators build and maintain significant portions of their own telco cloud infrastructure internally, often using open-source software frameworks and components from multiple vendors rather than relying entirely on a single external provider. Others rely more heavily on partnerships with hyperscalers like Microsoft or Google, or with telecom equipment vendors offering pre-packaged telco cloud platforms, particularly for capabilities like AI infrastructure where building genuinely competitive internal capability from scratch would require substantial investment. Many operators ultimately pursue a hybrid approach, maintaining direct control over certain core, mission-critical infrastructure while relying on external partners for less differentiating capabilities.
What role does Red Hat and open-source software play in Telco Cloud?
Red Hat, primarily through its OpenShift platform and broader open-source software portfolio, has become a significant player in telco cloud infrastructure, providing operators and telecom equipment vendors with an open-source foundation for building and running virtualized network functions rather than relying entirely on proprietary, vendor-specific software stacks. This open-source approach appeals to operators partly because it reduces dependency on any single proprietary vendor’s specific technology stack, and partly because it benefits from a broader community of contributors across the technology industry beyond telecom specifically. Several major telecom equipment vendors and operators have built their own telco cloud offerings on top of Red Hat’s open-source foundation, reflecting how significant open-source software has become as an underlying building block for telco cloud infrastructure broadly.
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