BUILDING SMARTER HIGHWAYS IN TELECOM'S NEW DIGITAL FRONTIER

Autonomous networks enable telcos to streamline operations, enhance services, and reduce costs, driving efficiency in a data-driven, hyperconnected world

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The role of telecom networks has transformed significantly over the past few years, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As people increasingly turned to digital applications to perform everyday tasks, telecom networks evolved to provide the necessary digital infrastructure to address these requirements; be it education, entertainment, job, shopping, banking, healthcare needs, agriculture or others.

To address the evolving connectivity demands, Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have integrated additional platform-based services powered by modern technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain and edge computing. While these efforts have significantly improved customer experience, they have turned network management into a complex, costly and time-consuming process. This is where the role of network automation comes in.

Today, autonomous networks powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are revolutionising telecom services delivery worldwide. They simplify every operation, from policy implementation to network testing, from predictive maintenance to problem resolution, and more.

BENEFIT FOR INDIAN TELCOS

India has witnessed a staggering growth in Internet subscriptions over the past few years. With an overall Internet penetration of 85.85%, India is home to the second-largest telecom industry in the world. While the growth has provided TSPs in India with ample opportunities for revenue generation, the challenges associated with infrastructure build-out and management have outpaced those benefits. According to a report by Cisco, the cost of managing today's complex networks is two to three times more than the cost of the network itself. Thus, network automation has emerged as the way forward to reduce network management costs.