If MWC is one of those “world buffet” style food courts that are virtually impossible to have an enjoyable meal at, FutureNet is the opposite: a well-themed restaurant where everything on the menu is expertly prepared, and the experience is one you positively look forward to.
That’s not to say it’s small: the upcoming FutureNet World event in London is an increasingly big affair. Over just two days (7-8 May), there are 45 sessions across panels, fireside chats, and good old-fashioned presentations, with at least 22 different telecom service providers featured among the speakers. Plenty of tasty main course and side dish options there.
But FutureNet is not resting on its laurels. It continues to evolve its menu agenda, in line with telecom’s own changing appetites.
Are you sitting comfortably?
Time was that telecom conference agendas would be split comfortably into Fixed Line and Wireless tracks, or the dreaded OSS vs BSS streams. But this is FutureNet, so don’t get too comfortable: if we’re not challenging industry convention, we’re not changing industry convention.
FutureNet is the venue for progressive thinking telecom, so no surprise to see modern themes on the agenda:
- AI and GenAI
- APIs and network exposure
- Monetization
- Telecom as a Platform
- Autonomous Networks
- Cloud & Cloud-Native
- Ecosystems and Collaboration
There’s nothing out of place here – it’s the right agenda, for anyone with an interest in helping telecom find a way out of its current predicament. As Appledore highlighted recently in a new analysis of the economic state of telecom, we’ve been stuck, or at best running to stand still, despite a decade of transformation initiatives. Yet the tools and technologies at our disposal just keep getting more and more sophisticated. If the lesson from NFV was that telecom should have stayed the course, how does telecom respond when the course is now being reset, redefined and reimagined every 18 months? Metaverse, anyone?
Transformation, a la carte
Autonomous Networks has been rising in importance, as telcos everywhere try to reconcile having sophisticated next-gen networks with the processes for operating current-gen infrastructure. And autonomous networks aren’t just about saving opex – the whole idea is central to making an API-based business model work. Since last year, we’ve highlighted the network autonomy chasm that exists for telcos in planning the move from Level 3 to Level 4 in the TM Forum’s model, so I’m looking forward to hearing Telefonica’s experiences (two sessions!) on their AN journey. Other notable speakers on this topic include Kailem Anderson from Ciena/Blue Planet, Sasa Nijemcevic from Nokia as well as speakers from Lumen, Vodafone, Telia, Telenor and Comarch.
And this being FutureNet (with the emphasis on “Net”), sessions on AI will address the practicalities, value and limitations of AI in the network domain, from RAN to core. Lining up to share thoughts on that are progressive Canadian operator TELUS, BT, Colt, Three UK, Liberty Global, Deutsche Telekom plus Netcracker and IBM.
Applications of GenAI are getting more creative – certainly extending well beyond the smarter chatbot territory. And that in turn drives attention to the processes used to feed and maintain the AI machinery: at FutureNet you’ll hear more about both from TELUS, VMO2, Orange, DT, BT, and Vodafone with Amdocs, Nokia and Infovista sharing their thoughts.
It is good to see that Agentic AI does not dominate the program – FutureNet has a carefully developed reputation for sober programming – and all the better for having an operator on this topic (Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong) accompany vendor Canopus Networks.
The business of telecom is also a strong theme, reflecting the drive for growth. This gets airtime on discussions about business models (BT, Vodafone, Orange, Colt, KPN, Elisa, Telefonica O2, with input from Dell, Reailize), B2B telecom (Proximus, BT, Colt, Telenor and VMO2).
Economics of Telecom: Revisited
Perhaps telecom is regaining its appetite for ambition; if so, FutureNet is a great place to test that thesis. Are we still tinkering at the edges, with PoCs and science projects, biding our time until the next great G wave sweeps us around a well-worn loop of plan, build and operate? Or are we instead making the sort of fundamental structural investment and change that is required to nudge those stubbornly flat business metrics upwards?
To what degree are we actually shutting down the systems and appliances that were once state-of-the-art, but today represent some of the biggest obstacles to progress?
Is telecom changing how and who it works with, in the light of new ideas about open interfaces, data, AI and cloud?
FutureNet London 2025 will serve up a rich set of tasty perspectives. Make your reservation today!