Telecom is progressing from abstract concepts to practical implementation, with organizations such as TM Forum and ETSI emphasizing granular, intent-driven, hyper-local autonomous domains. Many suppliers, including NEPs, ISVs, and hyperscalers, offer solutions across domains (e.g., RAN, IP, Optical) and for cross-domain service orchestration (CDSO), though full maturity is not yet achieved.

CSPs are adopting autonomy cautiously, driven by the demands for cost reduction, service innovation, and the need to manage network complexity. Ultimately, autonomy is seen as essential for simplifying operations and enabling new services at scale.

“Principles of Network Autonomy – Part Three: Market and Vendor Landscape,” provides a market and vendor overview for network autonomy, advocating a fundamental rethink of network operations beyond traditional OSS/BSS to a new network automation software (NAS) taxonomy. It stresses that autonomy is not an incremental improvement but requires significant investment, urging Communication Service Providers (CSPs) to buy rather than build autonomous network software due to its sophistication and the market’s multi-vendor nature.

Table of Contents:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

INTRODUCTION

MAKE VS BUY

MARKET OUTLOOK (“STATE OF THE INDUSTRY”): CSPS

Organizational and Process Readiness

The need to simplify problems into small sub-domains

Metrics and management goals must align with technology goals

CSPs & Suppliers: Update from TM Forum’s DTW Copenhagen 2025

MARKET OUTLOOK (“STATE OF THE INDUSTRY”): INDUSTRY ORGANIZATIONS

TM Forum

ETSI (using GANA)

Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)

Mplify/MEF (and other technology specific organizations such as the IETF)

Standards

MARKET OUTLOOK (“STATE OF THE INDUSTRY”): SUPPLIERS

Mobile Networks

IP Domain automation

Cloud native automation

Cross domain (service) orchestration

Micro Domains

Criteria for inclusion

AIOps and Agentic AI: beyond the scope of this document

Suppliers and solutions derive from diverse backgrounds

Systems Integration and SIs

Supplier Landscape

Amdocs

ARRCUS

AWS for Telecom

Ciena and Blue Planet

Cisco

Elisa Polystar

Ericsson

Fujitsu 1Finity

Google

HPE

Huawei

IBM

Inmanta

Itential

Juniper

Microsoft Azure Local (was Nexus)

NEC

Netcracker

Nokia

Oracle

Radisys

Rakuten Symphony

Red Hat

Samsung

VMware (Broadcom)

Wind River

ZTE

CSPS – STATUS OF NAS EVOLUTION

Findings from Recent Primary Market Research in Broadband Access

Turning Autonomous Network Domains into Autonomous Customer-facing Services: CDSO

SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendations for CSPs

Recommendations for Suppliers

FINAL THOUGHTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY/RECOMMENDED READING

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

List of figures

Figure 1: Appledore taxonomy and autonomy components

Figure 2: TM Forum – Consistent Focus on the need for closed-loop, autonomous domains, and intent

Figure 3: ETSI GANA/ZSM is consistent with ANs, TM Forum and Appledore NAS Taxonomies

Figure 4: Vendor Landscape

Figure 5: Vendor solutions per domain

Figure 6: CDSO Use Cases – Focus and Maturity of Use Cases (2022)