Shanthi Ravindran previews the Asian edition of FutureNet World in Singapore, 18-19 October, 2023.
FutureNet World turns five this year and for the Asia Pacific region, this is a unique conference in the region with its sole focus on Automation in Telecom. The conference brings together many major Telcos in the region from Japan, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka and all the major vendors supporting them in the region. It focuses on their business opportunities, the supporting technologies and the changes in operating models, as they advance towards their new avatar as a Cloud-native Telco.
And it is right on track for Asia, where many operators are going through major mergers, making transformations in their networks essential and in some cases imperative for their operations. CSPs on a high-growth path are transforming their business and looking into areas where extreme automation at the core and edge can transform themselves and the industries that they serve.
AI and GenAI are on everyone’s minds as we go into this conference, with all members of the telecom ecosystem having jumped into the fray with solutions specific for the telecom industry. We believe it is important to view this in the business context and the actual value it brings in terms of complex and complicated problems that it can solve, to make your workflows more effective – FutureNet World Asia should bring that perspective into play.
Back in May, Robert Curran summed up FutureNet World London pointing to 6 Ps (Programmability, Profitability, Platforms, People, Partnerships, and Planet), that was in full evidence in that conference, and the highlight of the last Q&A – how can we afford to believe that DNA-level change is a bigger risk than maintaining the current way of working ?
So what can we expect from FutureNet Asia, Singapore – October 18-19, 2023?
FutureNet Asia recognises that automation in telecom is an Industry level transformation and seeks to bring all the players in the ecosystem together for a lively and constructive discussion that could very well set the directions for their future together.
The curated content seeks to fit together all the pieces of the jigsaw – the Business Opportunity, the Technologies, the Operating models and the journey itself – to become cloud-native with disaggregation and automation – realising that all of this coming together collaboratively in an ecosystem is what can fuel the much-needed innovation for the evolution to Automation and AI.
The conference includes true CxO level views from the major CSPs in the region including Singtel Group, Bridge Alliance, AIS, Globe group, Axiata Group, M1, MyRepublic and real-world experiences and viewpoints being shared by the same CSPs and more from Telstra, Telenor, Telkomsel, Starhub, Telekom Malaysia, NTT Docomo, BT Group, Rakuten, Spark New Zealand and Sri Lanka Telecom.
Day 1 – Conference opened by Dr. Ong Geok Chwee, CEO, Bridge Alliance, and has 3 sessions:
- Session 1 – CxO Keynote – Beyond Connectivity & The Future Telco – Redefining the Telco (Globe Group, Axiata, Singtel Enterprise Business, Amdocs), Networks of the Future and how to get there (Amdocs), Telco to TechCo (Telenor Asia, AWS, VMware).
- Session 2 – NaaS / Platform / APIs – Delivering on the promise (Telstra, SingTel, Telkomsel, VMware) Moving to NaaS (MyRepublic, StarHub, Telenor Asia).
- Session 3 – 5G & Edge: Monetising the Network – Network & Service Automation – 5G (Dell, Intel), 5G SA (Telstra, TM, NTT DoCoMo, P.I. Works), Mobile Private Networks, Operating on the Edge (SingTel, Starhub, NTT DoCoMo).
- Session 4 – New Operating Model – Data-driven Operations (Ericsson), zero Touch Orchestration (AIS, TM, Optus, Red Hat), Ecosystems (Telenor Asia, Starhub, SLT).
Day 2 – Appledore presents its view of the investment trends in Network Automation, this is an indication of the volume of transformations that the industry has invested in.
- Session 1 – CXO Keynote – The journey to Cloud native and network monetisation (M1, BT Group, Smart Axiata, Rakuten Symphony), The ambitions of CSPs today, Shift to AIOps (Rakuten Mobile)
- Session 2 – Open Telco, New Ecosystems & Automation – Open Networking (Programmability & Disaggregation (SLT, TM, WindRiver)
- Session 3 – Network Modernisation – Towards Zero Touch & Autonomous Ops – Unlocking value, Realising 5G promise (Telenor, SLT, Rakuten Mobile, Elisa Polystar), Autonomous Ops (Telenor Group, Singtel, TM R&D), Agile Orchestration (TM, Speark New Zealand, Axiata), Disaggregated Networks (Axiata)
FutureNet is interesting because of its laser sharp focus on this collaborative journey of the telecom industry towards autonomous networks. As an industry we realise that this has been done before in other industries and can be done in telecom too, and as analysts, we are interested in finding out and solving together, this challenge of how we can hasten the journey.
In our market share analysis, we have seen investments going into the right technologies and transformations, and we believe we have liftoff. But we also know that we need to do much more. We need to think differently – in terms of our operating models and the business that we operate in.
The industry is poised for a step change, driven by demand for innovative services, maturing technologies and evolving business models. In this conference, we look forward to seeing how the pieces of the jigsaw – the Business Opportunity, the Technologies, the Operating models and the journey itself – fit together and how it can all be brought together through true collaboration in the ecosystem, for a faster and wider transformation to autonomous networks.
Full disclosure: Appledore is participating in the event once again, as an invited Research Partner. Shanthi Ravindran will kickoff the second day with a presentation on the investments going into automation. She will also chair a panel on Agile Orchestration with Telecom Malaysia, Spark New Zealand and Axiata Group. And there is much more to look forward to at the 2 day conference.
At FutureNet World, the Appledore team always enjoys the peer-to-peer discussions around the conference and show floor exhibits with the participants, this time with vendors like Amdocs, AWS, VMware, Dell, Intel, P.I. Works, Ericsson, Red Hat, Elisa Polystar. The Awards ceremony, a true showcase of innovation, is always one to look forward to as well. With its well-curated, focused program, FutureNet promises to provide an exclusive look into possibilities for the future. It is one of a kind in the region, and we would recommend everyone in the region working on automation, to attend FutureNet World Asia.
We look forward to seeing you all here in Singapore!
Shanthi Ravindran
Picture credit: Photo by Walter Cheung on Unsplash