Why Telefónica’s Journey to Autonomous Network Level 4 Depends on Operations

At FutureNet World 2026, Nilmar Seccomandi David, Director of Autonomous Network & Infrastructure at Telefónica, gave an interesting update on the operator's journey towards Level 4 autonomous networks.

The presentation, “Autonomous Operations: Why the Journey to AN L4 Depends on It?”, went beyond the increasingly familiar discussion about using AI in telecom networks. The more important message was that Level 4 is not something an operator achieves simply by deploying enough AI use cases. It requires a much broader transformation of network technology, operational platforms, processes and people, together with a way of measuring autonomy across the whole organisation.

Telefónica launched its Autonomous Network Journey (ANJ) programme in 2021 with its three main operating companies in Spain, Germany and Brazil. David explained that it adopted a holistic approach from the beginning, covering the main network lifecycle processes of planning, testing, deployment and operations, as well as domains including IP, transport, radio, fixed access, core and cloud.

This is important because Telefónica does not view the autonomous network programme as a collection of isolated automation projects.

The programme has four main workstreams. The first is technology transformation, including more open, softwarised and disaggregated networks as well as the removal of legacy technologies. The second is what Telefónica calls the brain, its automation platform, covering data integrity, data lakes, OSS modernisation and the platforms required to implement automation and AI.

The third is the heart, involving process redesign. David's point here was that simply automating an existing process does not necessarily capture the full benefits of automation. Processes themselves may need to be redesigned as new capabilities are introduced.

The fourth is people, including new ways of working, reskilling and creating an AI culture.

This framework is not new. In his FutureNet World presentation a year earlier, David used essentially the same four dimensions, describing them as The Network, The Brain, The Heart and People. The 2025 material already included open and softwarised networks, data and automation platforms, process redesign and organisational change.

That earlier presentation also showed Telefónica moving from conventional automation towards what it called Hyper Automation, with GenAI, agentic AI, cognitive cross-domain AI and digital twins becoming increasingly important between 2025 and 2030.

The difference in 2026 is that the discussion has become much more focused on how the operator measures progress and what autonomous operations actually look like in production.

Telefónica estimates that when the programme started five years ago, its overall autonomy level was around 1.1. It has progressed through the maturity levels year by year and closed 2025 at 3.42.

The company has now made its longer-term objectives public. It is targeting an average autonomy level of 3.75 by 2028 and Level 4 by 2030 across Spain, Brazil and Germany. Those targets formed part of Telefónica's November 2025 Capital Markets Day and its wider Transform & Grow strategy.

David made an interesting observation about the importance Telefónica now attaches to the number: autonomy level has become a KPI followed by the company's board, alongside conventional indicators such as revenue and Net Promoter Score.

That raises the obvious question: what exactly does a figure such as 3.42 mean?

This was perhaps the most useful part of the presentation.

Image: Telefónica breaks its autonomy measurement down from Group and operating-company level through network domains, sub-domains, processes and individual activities. Source: Telefónica / FutureNet World 2026

Telefónica uses the TM Forum Autonomous Networks framework as its basis, but David stressed that operators have to adapt the methodology to their own networks.

At the top level, Telefónica's Group autonomy figure consolidates the results from Spain, Brazil and Germany.

Within each operating company, the network is divided into domains such as IP, transport, radio, fixed access, core and cloud. Those can then be divided into sub-domains. Transport, for example, may include optical and microwave, while the core can include voice and packet-core functions.

Each domain is then assessed across processes such as planning, testing, deployment and operations. Those can be broken down again into individual activities. Operations, for example, includes areas such as fault and performance management.

The result is a large hierarchy of measurements which eventually rolls up into the Telefónica autonomy figure.

David's argument was that this complexity is necessary. Knowing that an operator has one, ten or even twenty impressive autonomous scenarios tells you relatively little about the autonomy of the network as a whole.

The same point was already visible in Telefónica's 2025 reporting. Its autonomy index showed progress occurring at different speeds across six network domains and multiple processes. IP and RAN were among the more advanced areas, while Core and Telco Cloud were further behind.

The 2026 results make that variation particularly clear.

Image: Telefónica's current autonomy assessment shows considerable variation between network domains and operational processes even though the consolidated Group autonomy level is 3.42. Source: Telefónica / FutureNet World 2026

The slide shows the results in two different ways.

On the left are Telefónica's three operating companies. The countries are deliberately anonymised, but the data is real. IP is the most autonomous domain in all three operating companies, while Cloud is the least autonomous.

The right-hand view breaks the assessment down by process. Even inside IP, which is the most mature overall domain, testing is less autonomous than the other main processes.

This illustrates one of the difficulties with discussions about “reaching Level 4”. An operator does not suddenly become Level 4 everywhere. Different countries, technologies and processes progress at different rates, and the overall figure can hide significant differences underneath.

Telefónica closed 2025 with 12 individual Level 4 use cases, spread across Spain, Germany and Brazil. Two were associated with planning, five with deployment and five with operations. Telefónica describes Level 4 cases as those capable of acting autonomously based on an intention provided by a human.

These include autonomous network-capacity creation, transport digital twins, autonomous IP fault resolution, 5G Core self-healing, fibre planning, software changes and multi-domain correlation.

The first Level 4 operations example David discussed was NetOptimizer, a digital twin of the O2 Germany transport network.

Image: O2 Germany's NetOptimizer uses a digital twin of the transport network for network analysis, simulation and proactive bottleneck detection. Source: Telefónica / FutureNet World 2026

NetOptimizer maintains an end-to-end representation of the German transport network and is used for analysis, simulation and bottleneck detection.

One particularly interesting capability is resilience testing. David explained that the system can periodically simulate the failure of individual links across the thousands of links in the transport network and analyse what would happen elsewhere.

Potential bottlenecks can therefore be identified before an actual failure exposes them.

The benefits shown on the presentation slide include 80% less time required for analysis, 40% fewer transport capacity issues, more than 90% fewer sites with very high capacity loading and a 5% latency improvement.

Telefónica has separately published the same figures for NetOptimizer, confirming the 80% reduction in time spent on planning, operations and network-optimisation analysis.

This is also worth noting because the automatic transcript of the presentation renders the first figure as 8%; the slide itself and Telefónica's published material make clear that the figure is 80%.

The second Level 4 example addressed IP interface flapping, where an interface repeatedly transitions between active and inactive states because of problems such as fibre attenuation, hardware faults, temperature or other instability.

Telefónica's system detects the condition, attempts to establish its cause and applies corrective action automatically. Where the problem cannot be resolved automatically, the affected port can be blocked and the appropriate field process triggered.

The company says the solution has reduced the impact of flapping on services by 70%, while removing the need for manual intervention in the closed-loop resolution process.

David then presented several other examples which are not yet Level 4 but are interesting because they demonstrate that Telefónica is not relying on a single flavour of AI.

One is Correlax in Brazil.

The starting problem was surprisingly mundane: NOC staff complained about gaps in the network inventory, which made it difficult to determine relationships between apparently separate incidents.

Rather than waiting for a perfect inventory, Telefónica applied graph techniques similar in principle to those used to establish relationships in social networks. It inferred relationships between network elements from available information and then used these relationships to correlate trouble tickets.

David said Correlax is reducing the relevant tickets by around 44%.

Another example is ATEA, an AI Factory deployed in Germany in collaboration with Google and using Gemini. One of the scenarios David described was cell-health analysis.

What had previously been a manual process involving the correlation of KPIs from multiple databases can increasingly be automated, bringing together information from different sources to analyse the condition of the network.

David also discussed rApps as a Service. Telefónica is testing an Ericsson solution using AWS which, according to the presentation, could be deployed in only a few days. The initial application involved anomaly detection, with additional agents being developed.

These examples are useful because the FutureNet World agenda specifically asked about the roles of predictive, generative and agentic AI, but the presentation suggests that this may be the wrong way to think about autonomous networks.

Telefónica is using whatever technique is appropriate to the problem: conventional automation, traditional algorithms, machine learning, graph analytics, digital twins, GenAI, rApps and increasingly AI agents.

The 2025 FutureNet World presentation made the same point in a different way. Telefónica already had more than 400 use cases spanning AI-driven network design, digital twins, capacity forecasting, GenAI document analysis, predictive maintenance, incident correlation and automated optimisation.

Its main case study that year was Vivo's Fractal system, which automated network creation using a mixture of DBSCAN clustering, Coral Reef algorithms, Telefónica's internally developed House of Cats algorithm and Dijkstra's shortest-path algorithm. The accompanying TelcoTitans report said Fractal had helped reduce mobile-site deployment time from around three months to one week.

The progression between the two FutureNet World presentations is therefore quite revealing. In 2025, the centrepiece was an advanced individual planning and network-creation use case. In 2026, the discussion is much more about spreading autonomy through the wider operating model and measuring that transformation systematically.

One of the most interesting parts of the 2026 presentation was David's reminder that AI by itself is not always enough.

Image: Telefónica's RAN energy example illustrates the limits of software optimisation: power-saving features and AI can reduce consumption significantly, but further improvements may ultimately require hardware modernisation. Source: Telefónica / FutureNet World 2026

He used RAN energy consumption as an example.

Traditional network power-saving features can already deliver substantial reductions. David suggested savings of around 20–30% compared with a network that does not use them.

AI can then improve when and how those features are activated. Depending on the implementation, David suggested that another 5–10% might be achievable.

Eventually, however, optimisation runs into the physical characteristics of the installed equipment.

At that point, modernising the hardware can potentially produce another significant improvement. David suggested that combining power-saving features and AI with newer hardware could yield an additional 20–30% and allow the energy-consumption curve to track the traffic curve much more closely.

The precise savings will clearly vary between networks, configurations and equipment generations, but the underlying message is important:

software intelligence cannot indefinitely compensate for inefficient hardware.

This is a useful counterweight to the idea that every network problem will eventually be solved by more sophisticated AI.

The final example in the presentation brought service observability into the autonomous-operations picture.

Traditional network operations tend to concentrate heavily on network KPIs. David argued that improving the network view is not sufficient: operators also need to understand the service view.

The example combines network status with service information and external factors such as weather conditions. Problems can then be analysed not only according to what is happening inside the network, but according to which services and customers are actually affected.

David said this approach is reducing Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) by around 30% and helping Telefónica prioritise which field tickets need attention first.

This may ultimately be one of the most important requirements for Level 4. A genuinely autonomous network should not merely know that a KPI has crossed a threshold or that a network element has failed. It needs enough context to understand what that failure means for the service, decide its relative importance and take the appropriate action.

There has already been further progress since the FutureNet World presentation.

Recently Telefónica provided a newer update saying it now has more than 500 AI use cases in production, with 15 already at Level 4. The targets remain Level 3.75 in 2028 and Level 4 in 2030.

That update reinforces the main message I took from David's FutureNet World presentation.

Level 4 is not something an operator installs.

It is the result of progressively changing how the network is designed, observed, deployed and operated; improving the data and OSS platforms underneath it; redesigning processes around closed-loop operation; and changing how people interact with increasingly autonomous systems.

AI is becoming increasingly important to that journey, particularly as GenAI and agentic approaches mature. But Telefónica's experience also shows that autonomous networking is much broader than AI.

It includes digital twins, conventional algorithms, closed-loop automation, observability, modern network architectures, accurate data, process redesign and, where necessary, replacing the physical infrastructure itself.

Perhaps that is why the title of the presentation was so appropriate.

The journey to Autonomous Network Level 4 ultimately depends on autonomous operations.

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Telefónica Germany Pushes IoT Beyond Terrestrial Limits

The growing convergence of satellite and cellular connectivity is beginning to reshape how operators approach IoT, and a recent presentation by Miguel Rodriguez, Product Manager IoT at Telefónica Germany, offered a useful perspective on how this shift is playing out in practice.

Speaking at the “5G NTN and Satellite IoT” webinar hosted by Global 5G Evolution, Rodriguez outlined how Telefónica Germany is positioning itself to take advantage of non-terrestrial networks within its broader 5G IoT portfolio. Rather than viewing satellite as a disruptive threat, the company sees it as a natural extension of its connectivity capabilities, enabling it to address use cases that have traditionally remained out of reach.

Telefónica Germany has already built a comprehensive 5G IoT portfolio spanning high performance use cases with standalone and non-standalone 5G, as well as mid and low tier connectivity with RedCap, LTE-M and NB-IoT. The addition of narrowband NTN effectively extends this portfolio beyond terrestrial limitations, particularly for massive IoT deployments that require low power and wide coverage.

A key theme from the presentation was the idea of hybrid connectivity. The goal is not to replace terrestrial networks but to complement them, creating a seamless experience where devices can switch between cellular and satellite depending on availability. This approach is particularly relevant in areas where terrestrial coverage is patchy or economically unviable, such as remote infrastructure, agricultural land, transport corridors and maritime environments.

Rodriguez highlighted that even in mature markets like Germany, there are persistent coverage gaps. These are often in locations where investment in terrestrial infrastructure does not make commercial sense, yet where IoT data can be highly valuable. Satellite connectivity provides a practical way to fill these gaps, ensuring continuity of service and enabling new types of deployments.

On a global scale, the limitations become even more apparent. While low power wide area networks such as NB-IoT and LTE-M have achieved significant reach, there are still many regions without coverage or with limited roaming agreements. Satellite IoT offers a way to achieve truly global deployments, including in regions such as parts of Africa, Latin America and across oceans.

Telefónica Germany’s strategy involves working with multiple satellite partners to address different connectivity needs. For geostationary connectivity, it collaborates with Skylo, focusing on consistent availability and a well-developed device ecosystem. For low Earth orbit connectivity, it partners with OQ Technology, enabling intermittent but cost-effective communication suitable for periodic data transmission. On the broadband side, solutions involving Starlink are being integrated to support higher throughput use cases.

An important aspect of this approach is how it is packaged for customers. Telefónica Germany is aiming to simplify what could otherwise become a complex multi-network environment. The operator acts as a single contracting partner, providing one interface for connectivity management, data access and billing. This abstraction is critical in making hybrid connectivity accessible, particularly for enterprises that do not want to manage multiple providers and technologies.

Affordability also plays a central role. The ambition is to make satellite IoT viable for large scale deployments rather than niche applications. By integrating satellite usage into existing tariffs and enabling opportunistic connectivity, Telefónica Germany is attempting to lower the barrier to entry and support the expansion of massive IoT.

Beyond connectivity, the challenge of integrating satellite data into cloud platforms was also addressed. Narrowband satellite communication typically relies on lightweight protocols that are not directly compatible with standard cloud interfaces. Telefónica Germany’s Kite platform acts as a bridge, converting data into formats suitable for hyperscaler environments such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. This allows devices to remain efficient in terms of power and bandwidth while still enabling seamless cloud integration.

The energy sector emerged as a particularly strong use case for hybrid connectivity. From generation to distribution and consumption, there are numerous points where reliable data collection is critical. Satellite connectivity can support both primary communication in remote areas and fallback scenarios during outages, enhancing the resilience of energy infrastructure.

What becomes clear from this presentation is that non-terrestrial networks are not being treated as a separate domain but as an integral part of the overall connectivity fabric. The combination of terrestrial and satellite networks, supported by unified platforms and commercial models, is moving the industry closer to the idea of ubiquitous coverage.

For operators, this represents both a technical and strategic shift. The ability to offer global, seamless connectivity across multiple access technologies could become a key differentiator, particularly in enterprise and IoT markets. For customers, it opens up new possibilities for deploying connected devices in places that were previously considered unreachable.

The evolution of 5G into a truly integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial ecosystem is still in its early stages, but the direction is becoming increasingly clear. Hybrid connectivity is no longer just a concept. It is starting to take shape as a practical and scalable solution for the next phase of IoT growth.

The talk is embedded below:

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How AI Is Reshaping Network Operations at Deutsche Telekom

Michal Sewera, an experienced technology leader at Deutsche Telekom Group (generally written as TDG which stands for 'Telekom Deutschland GmbH'), recently offered a rare behind-the-scenes view of how AI is being used to manage and optimise telco cloud operations. As the head of TDG’s cloud-native 5G core DevOps team, he has led the shift to a new operating model built on cloud-native principles, automation and AI.

Presenting at the FutureNet World conference in London on 7–8 May 2025, Michal shared how TDG’s journey to cloud-native began with the realisation that cloud is not simply about virtualisation or containers. The real transformation lies in a fundamental change in architecture and operations. Moving to a GitOps operational model with declarative deployments and a concept of desired network state has allowed TDG to move from infrequent bulk updates to continuous, incremental changes. In this new approach, change is no longer an exception but an asset.

However, this shift comes with its own challenges. Cloud-native telco systems are composed of highly distributed microservices, open-source components and loosely coupled layers. This creates what Michal refers to as the butterfly effect, where even a small change can lead to unexpected consequences elsewhere in the system. Traditional approaches to validation, configuration and assurance are simply no longer sufficient.

To address this, TDG has integrated AI tools across all stages of the network lifecycle: development, rollout and operations. In the development phase, TDG uses an AI-based validation framework that collects data from across the application, platform and infrastructure layers. It analyses complex interdependencies using pattern recognition across 3GPP signalling, KPIs, logs, Kubernetes, CNIs and service mesh. This approach replaces traditional regression testing with intelligent analysis that highlights functional issues and pinpoints root causes early in the pipeline.

During rollout, the AI-powered Network Configuration Co-Pilot supports configuration changes across distributed clusters. The tool goes well beyond Git automation bots, using a mix of reusable configuration patterns, chat-based interaction with embedded vendor knowledge and natural language integration with systems like Kubernetes. This allows engineers to handle the massive complexity of telco configurations more efficiently and with greater confidence.

In live operations, TDG employs a combination of active and passive monitoring across its Platform as a Service layer. Probes and telemetry continuously monitor performance while AI-driven root cause analysis tools detect anomalies and correlate them with platform and network data. This enables early detection of degradation and supports predictive fault analysis. TDG also applies AI to canary testing and deployment. New releases are gradually introduced in production environments under close AI-assisted monitoring, allowing issues to be caught before full rollout. This model is a marked departure from the old reliance on staging environments and lab testing.

TDG’s new operational model, grounded in GitOps and driven by AI, offers a compelling example of how operators can adapt to the complexity and speed of change in cloud-native environments. The shift transforms telecom networks from silent, black-box systems into transparent, data-rich platforms where actionable insight can be extracted and acted upon in near real time.

Michal’s insights make clear that AI is not an optional add-on in this new environment. It is a fundamental enabler that allows the telco cloud to scale, evolve and remain resilient. For operators looking to modernise their networks, TDG’s experience offers valuable lessons in how to harness automation and intelligence to meet the demands of the future.

You can watch the full video of his talk below:

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How O2 Telefónica is Redefining the Network with NaaS and Open APIs

At O2 Telefónica Germany, the “network of the future” is no longer a distant vision, it’s becoming an operational reality. Under the leadership of Matthias Sauder, Director Networks, the operator has made substantial strides in transforming its end-to-end infrastructure to meet the demands of a highly agile, programmable, and customer-focused future.

At the FutureNet World conference in London (7–8 May 2025), where leading telco and tech stakeholders gathered to explore network automation and AI in telecoms, Sauder shared how O2 Telefónica’s evolution journey spans radio, transport, core, data centres, and cloud landing zones, all underpinned by a strategy that prioritises automation, flexibility, and openness.

The transformation began with a foundational goal: enhancing radio network quality. Once considered the underdog in a three-operator market, O2 Germany set out to radically improve performance by embracing agile practices and reshaping internal structures. Inspired by the Spotify model, the company introduced agility not just in project management but also in technical delivery. This included frequent software release cycles for radio, positioning itself as a global leader in rapid deployment and continuous integration.

A key initiative known as Tech Strategy 25 laid the foundation for modernising radio, transport, and core networks. Today, over 80 percent of the strategy has already been executed. With a largely cloud-native core in place, O2 Telefónica is among the pioneers of this architectural shift. Its collaboration with Ericsson produced one of the world’s first cloud-native digital cores, while a parallel effort with Nokia deployed core services for one million users in a public cloud environment.

The rationale behind both cloud-native and public cloud approaches is clear. Legacy architectures no longer support the operational agility or cost efficiency needed in today’s competitive telecom landscape. Cloud-native systems enable advanced capabilities such as continuous integration, continuous delivery, and seamless in-service software upgrades (ISSU). O2 Telefónica has shown these upgrades can be executed without disrupting live customer services, challenging the long-standing perception that such practices are too risky for telco-grade reliability.

Beyond infrastructure, the company’s future network model hinges on the integration of open APIs and Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) capabilities. These aren’t abstract concepts, they’re practical tools enabling agility, programmability, and new revenue streams. Open APIs expose network functions to external developers and partners, unlocking opportunities for co-creation and monetisation that were previously out of reach.

This openness also extends to industry partnerships. A standout example is the company’s collaboration with Siemens, which now leverages O2's slicing capabilities to deliver tailored network services to its own customers. These kinds of arrangements demonstrate how NaaS, built on secure and standardised APIs, can unlock vertical-specific innovation.

But transformation isn’t just about technology, it’s also about mindset and culture. Simplifying and standardising network configurations (for example, reducing radio setups from over a hundred to just two) and promoting a service-centric approach are part of a broader shift. The focus is firmly on use cases and customer value, avoiding the trap of deploying technology for its own sake. Every new system or tool must demonstrate end-to-end value.

O2 Telefónica also recognises that data, rather than AI alone, is the foundation of intelligent automation. Without a robust data strategy, ambitions around AI, closed-loop automation, or service orchestration are unlikely to succeed. The company’s investment in OSS transformation and data-driven operations is laying the groundwork for intelligent networks that can scale, adapt, and optimise in real time.

As the line between network and IT continues to blur, O2 Telefónica is aligning its BSS, OSS, and IT systems with its network strategy. This integrated approach supports holistic innovation and positions the company to deliver services with faster time to market and greater cost efficiency.

The transformation journey shared by Matthias Sauder is more than a technical roadmap, it’s a call for industry-wide disruption. With revenues flat and operational costs rising, embracing NaaS, open APIs, and cloud-native infrastructure is no longer optional. It’s the only viable path for telcos to stay competitive, innovative, and relevant in a software-defined, platform-centric future.

Sauder’s full presentation at FutureNet World provides deeper insight into this journey. You can watch it below:

Deutsche Telekom wants to simplify IoT Connectivity via MECC (Make Everything Cellular Connected)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming industries, but device manufacturers often face significant challenges when integrating cellular connectivity into their products. To address this, Deutsche Telekom (DT) has introduced MECC – Make Everything Cellular Connected, a solution designed to streamline and simplify IoT connectivity. By embedding cellular modules directly into devices during production, MECC eliminates the need for complex modem integrations and reduces entry barriers for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

IoT Integration, Straight from the Factory

Traditionally, adding cellular connectivity to IoT devices required manufacturers to retrofit devices with modems, SIMs, and connectivity management platforms. This process added complexity, time, and cost. MECC offers a radically simplified approach:

• Pre-installed connectivity: Cellular modules with embedded nuSIMs are directly integrated into products during manufacturing.
• Smart Standby Mode: Connectivity is only activated when needed, such as for remote configuration or device status updates. This minimises ongoing costs and optimises energy efficiency.
• Heartbeat and Dormant Tariffs: Manufacturers can choose basic standby connectivity plans during production, activating full IoT plans when the device is in use. This flexibility reduces the economic risk of mass-producing connected devices.

Partnerships Driving Adoption

Deutsche Telekom has teamed up with Nordic Semiconductor and PSsystec to bring MECC to market. Nordic Semiconductor’s IoT modules provide the hardware foundation, while PSsystec has incorporated MECC into its product range, enabling cellular connectivity out of the box.

At MWC 2025, DT showcased how MECC makes it easier and more cost-effective for manufacturers to integrate cellular connectivity without dealing with complex hardware configurations. During the session, industry leaders such as Dennis Nikles (CEO, Deutsche Telekom IoT) and Oyvind Birkenes (EVP, Nordic Semiconductor) highlighted how MECC reduces development time and provides scalable IoT solutions.

The video of the session is embedded below:

Reducing Complexity, Increasing Flexibility

One of the key benefits of MECC is its flexibility for both manufacturers and end-users:

• For manufacturers: By embedding IoT modules during production, OEMs avoid the need for time-consuming and costly retrofitting. Devices leave the factory connectivity-ready, with the option to activate full IoT functionality later.
• For end-users: Devices can be remotely configured, updated, and monitored from day one, enabling manufacturers to offer enhanced services such as predictive maintenance or usage-based pricing models.

Lower Costs, Faster Time-to-Market

With MECC, DT offers graduated hardware pricing models, allowing manufacturers to install IoT modules in mass production without incurring full connectivity costs upfront. For example:

• Standby connectivity costs as little as €10 per year per device, with the option to upgrade to a full IoT Business LPWA data plan when needed.
• The integrated nuSIM eliminates the need for physical SIMs, saving space and reducing power consumption.

A Milestone for IoT

By pre-installing cellular connectivity at the manufacturing stage, Deutsche Telekom’s MECC solution significantly lowers the barriers to IoT adoption. It offers manufacturers a flexible, cost-efficient way to bring connected products to market faster while enabling new service models. As IoT adoption accelerates, solutions like MECC will play a vital role in driving scalability and innovation across industries.

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Deutsche Telekom’s Open RAN (ORAN) Plans

Open RAN (O-RAN/ORAN) took centre stage at Deutsche Telekom AG’s Capital Markets Day 2024 (#DTCMD24), with multiple mentions highlighting its growing significance in the telecom industry. Claudia Nemat, Member of the Management Board responsible for Technology and Innovation, underscored its role in co-creating with partners and kick-starting transformative initiatives like Open RAN and network APIs.

In her presentation, she highlighted both the opportunities and challenges presented by Open RAN. While it offers greater choice and flexibility, it also introduces significant complexity—someone must "stitch it all together." To navigate this complexity successfully, Deutsche Telekom is focusing on robust procurement at the subcomponent level, alongside developing strong software engineering, testing, and integration capabilities.

Deutsche Telekom’s transition from SRAN (Single-vendor RAN) to ORAN is not a new strategy, but Claudia shared an important update: the company is also developing its own RAN management system. This system aims to control costs, improve user experience, and mitigate risks associated with reliance on Chinese vendors. The approach involves replacing external configuration management systems with an in-house solution—a shift supported by a public agreement.

Deutsche Telekom reaffirmed its commitment to Open RAN, setting an ambitious goal to fully develop its conflict management capabilities by 2027. This long-term strategy positions the company as a leader in balancing innovation with operational resilience.

At Fyuz 2024 in Dublin, Petr Lédl, Chief Architect of DT O-RAN and Vice President of Network Trials at Deutsche Telekom talked about the progress in its three core areas of Open RAN – open fronthaul, an independent management framework, and the adoption of cloud RAN for hardware/software disaggregation. Deutsche Telekom is building on its in-house service management and orchestration (SMO) platform to develop a common management system that can cope with traditional RAN as well as Open RAN elements, says Lédl.

The video of his talk is embedded below: 

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Deutsche Telekom on the Role of AI in their Network

Deutsche Telekom has been actively promoting the role of Artificial Intelligence, both Predictive as well as Generative (GenAI), within their network. At FutureNet World 2024, Ahmed Hafez, VP Technology Strategy at Deutsche Telekom explained the role AI plays in their network. This Analysys Mason research note nicely summarises it as follows:

Deutsche Telekom’s (DT’s) Vice President of Technology Strategy, Ahmed Hafez, was forthcoming during a presentation at the event about the operator’s use of GenAI to improve employee productivity. Hafez said that DT had numerous GenAI-based use cases in production, including a coding assistant for developing test cases and an “FTTH roll-out chatbot” that helps contractors to adhere to regulation during fibre broadband installation. This chatbot uses retrieval augmented generation (RAG) based on information gathered from around 400 documents, each of which has about 900 pages, to respond to contractors’ questions and provide links to the relevant sections within these documents.

I’ve also used the 6-dimensional nature of networks as a reason why each use-case “cell” is a tiny part of the overall

Nice chart pic.twitter.com/GoUWVBu1yo

— Dean Bubley (@disruptivedean) April 16, 2024

The presentation from that is embedded below:

At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024, CEO Tim Höttges provided an insight into the ambition, the framework and governance of AI in Deutsche Telekom. His presentation is embedded below:

You can also read this article from Deutsche Telekom AGM 2024 where Tim Höttges talks a lot more about the use of AI in some 400 projects all across Deutsche Telekom. It is in turn helping optimize quality, bringing them closer to their customers, and enhancing productivity by up to 50% for routine tasks.

The adoption of AI within the networks is going to accelerate in the next few years and as 6G is billed as AI-native network, the ambition would be to have as little people interaction as possible and have most major tasks work autonomously.

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Vodafone Deutschland (Germany) Continues 5G Use Cases Innovation

Since the launch of the first European 5G Standalone Network, Vodafone Germany has continued innovating, to find the killer use case. Here are some of them that they have been working on this year.

First 5G Hospital: In the first 5G clinic in Europe, the network of the future will make innovative applications possible in the future that will significantly improve the medical treatment and care of patients. Whether in surgery, in the emergency room or even when calling the emergency services: "Digitization can save lives", says Vodafone Germany boss Hannes Ametsreiter. In order to expand the digital possibilities in hospitals, the Düsseldorf network pioneer is now equipping the Düsseldorf University Hospital (UKD) with 5G power. "We bring our real-time network directly to the hospital to support patients and doctors with new technologies."

5G Telemedicine: State-of-the-art technology, sensors and a direct line to a doctor await you when you visit the doctor in the telemedicine station. The US company Onmed has now launched one of the first treatment rooms for remote treatment on the market. Go in, get treatment, get medication, go out again. A visit to the doctor in the telemedicine station could be so easy. The first Onmed stations are to be set up in the USA and worldwide this year. And now let's take a look. This is what you can expect when you visit the doctor in the telemedicine station

Research on the 5G train: Vodafone builds campus network for test track in the Ore Mountains - Imagine you take the train from Hamburg to Berlin - and that completely without a train driver: in. How this can work is researched and tested by Vodafone in cooperation with the Technical University of Chemnitz. With 5G and the Internet of Things, the two partners want to digitalize rail traffic sustainably in order to make it safer and more efficient.

Sky 5G Multiview App: Anyone watching football matches in the stadium wants to see top sporting performance on the pitch and experience pure emotions. But fans in the stands do not always get every detail of the game and miss some crucial scenes. 5G technology from Vodafone and the Sky 5G Multiview app could soon change that. The Sky 5G Multiview app combines the advantages of a live sports broadcast on home TV with real emotions in the stadium. Because the new app provides fans in the audience with exclusive content and makes it possible to experience the top game directly on the smartphone from five camera perspectives.

Football live with DAZN: GIGA 5G from Vodafone kicks off the real-time broadcast - Vodafone and the sports platform DAZN want to make live sports broadcasting with 5G technology more environmentally friendly, more efficient and more flexible. The two partners are working on a sustainable football live stream that brings the impressions and emotions from the pitch to your home in real time. Live broadcasts at sports events usually work like this: Several cameras are connected to an OB van via cables. From there, the recordings are forwarded to a broadcasting center via satellite and played out from there. All of this requires a lot of technical and human resources. The data exchange via the 5G network from Vodafone can simplify these processes considerably. With the innovative solution from Vodafone and DAZN, the camera is simply connected to a 5G-capable router and the recordings are transmitted directly to the broadcast center. No annoying cables, no OB vans and almost no delay.

Please note: All news item from German has been translated to English automatically using Google translate.

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Deutsche Telekom's 'Tech Grounds' 2021

Back in June, Deutsche Telekom hosted a digital conference for sharing knowledge and experiencing the latest innovations. 'Telekom Tech Grounds' for magenta technology and green power took place on 28 & 29 June 2021. The event was hosted virtually and the admission was free for all. You can access the event here.

The Media Information kit highlighted:

Deutsche Telekom presents ideas and technical solutions that address four key questions: How will we tackle climate change as a Telco – together with our partners and clients? How will innovations empower business and digital health solutions? How will we leverage real-time data to build smart digital lifestyle environments and ecosystems? How will we transform networks into software-based platforms and services, enabling new business models? 

Four topic areas will be presented on different virtual stages. They focus on "Business Innovation," "Network Differentiation," "Home Innovation" and "Sustainability." 

Digital transformation in the telecommunications and IT industry is advancing at a rapid pace. "Digital technologies will play a key role in overcoming current challenges: without them, for example, we will not achieve climate neutrality," said Claudia Nemat, Telekom Board member responsible for technology and innovation. The CTO adds examples: "Video conferencing can continue to replace a large part of business travel. In agriculture, IoT-based applications effectively reduce the use of fertilizer, while smart home and smart grid applications help reduce our electricity consumption."  

Nice video of Deutsche Telekom's O-RAN Town in Neubrandenburg, Germany - https://t.co/Hb6XPN86bn

Three different approaches with Virtualized Open RAN networks:
1. D-RAN
2. Centralized vCU
3. Centralized vCU+vDU#Free5Gtraining #3G4G5G #MWC21 #4G #5G #OpenRAN #ORAN #ORANalliance

— Free 5G Training (@5Gtraining) July 7, 2021

Telekom switches on O-RAN Town in Neubrandenburg

Deutsche Telekom has put its ‘O-RAN Town’ into operation in Neubrandenburg, Germany. RAN stands for "Radio Access Network" and refers to components of antenna technology in mobile communications. And Open RAN, because unlike in the past, technology components from a large number of different technology suppliers are to work together. O-RAN Town will provide 4G and 5G services based on Open RAN at up to 25 sites. The first sites have now gone into operation and been integrated into Telekom Deutschland's live network. This includes Europe's first integration of Massive MIMO radio units (mMIMO, MIMO = multiple input, multiple output). This involves the use of a large number of small antennas per transmission unit. 

At O-RAN Town, Deutsche Telekom is researching, enhancing and verifying the end-to-end capabilities of the Service Management and Orchestration Tool (SMO) developed in-house based on open source. The SMO is used for automated testing, remote site configuration, and network anomaly detection and resolution. Deutsche Telekom plans to gradually expand O-RAN Town, working with various vendors. These solutions are currently being tested in the lab to ensure interoperability across all components. 

Deutsche Telekom says it wants to make Open RAN “deployable across its footprint by 2023”. Yesterday, it confirmed Europe’s first deployment with massive MIMO, at its "O-RAN Town" in Neubrandenburg, Germany. #MWC21 #TelekomTechGrounds pic.twitter.com/OlTZG7ZAiA

— Kester Mann (@kestermann) June 29, 2021

Network slicing for customized networks

Individual requirements are playing an increasingly important role, especially in industry: data rates, speeds or latency times. To meet these requirements, Telekom is testing network slicing. This means operating multiple virtual networks in parallel on the basis of a common network infrastructure. Network slicing is a key feature of 5G. Several virtual networks can be operated on a single physical network infrastructure. The network is “cut into slices", the so-called network slices. Different service characteristics and quality parameters can be provided for each "slice". The slices are completely isolated from each other. They can thus be adapted to different customer requirements. 

Together with its partners Ericsson and Samsung, Deutsche Telekom has now announced the world's first implementation, which was carried out across all manufacturers in the laboratory environment in Bonn. Another new feature allows a device to steer applications and services with specific requirements to a defined slice. With this, a customer can experience great service quality by serving applications with the right network slice.

Deutsche Telekom and Samsung join forces for sustainability 

Deutsche Telekom and Samsung are entering into a strategic partnership for sustainability. The core of the collaboration is the development of a green smartphone suitable for the mass market. It will support 5G technology and be designed to be sustainable. This includes easy repair and a removable battery. The smartphone is planned for the end of 2022.

The two companies are also focusing on a holistic approach. This also focuses on the service life of smartphones. Samsung is already an integral part of the Telekom cell phone cycle in Germany and Poland, which gives phones a second life. As part of the cycle, Telekom repurchases used phones, refurbishes them, and puts them back into circulation.

Digital port logistics: Drones secure port of Hamburg

Customer satisfaction is also a focus for Telekom when it comes to setting up campus networks. A few days ago, Telekom announced the establishment of a campus network in the Port of Hamburg on behalf of HHLA Sky, a subsidiary of Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG. HHLA Sky will control and monitor a fleet of industrial drones from a single control center using the campus network. At HHLA's terminals, the drones will inspect container bridges and asphalt surfaces to improve safety on the port site. This saves time compared to previous inspection procedures. In addition, the drones reliably transmit sensor and flight data via the campus network.

IoT Boost

Getting devices and applications up and running on the IoT is now easier than ever: Telekom and 1NCE, with clear focus on low bandwidth IoT connectivity, in cooperation with Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), offer the new Zero Touch service. This makes the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions as if by magic: simple and fast in the cloud with automated device onboarding on AWS. This is designed to rapidly reduce the complexity for customers by enabling them to easily set up and run their IoT solutions.

And that's the point. Technology must put people at the center. That applies to this solution as well as the others presented. Hence the motto of the Telekom Tech Grounds: #HumancenteredTechnology.  www.techgrounds.telekom.com.

The first day of the #TelekomTechGrounds was all about the questions how we are constantly improving our network, ensuring carbon-neutral business operations by 2040 and what our vision for #6G 🚀 looks like. All sessions are also available on demand 👉https://t.co/H5L80i5Yow pic.twitter.com/qcsnP7Dbqg

— Deutsche Telekom AG (@deutschetelekom) June 28, 2021

You can also find a short summary of Telekom Tech Ground Network Differentiation Session by Dr. Alex Jinsung Choi, Deutsche Telekom Senior Vice President, Head of Strategy & Technology Innovation, COO of O-RAN Alliance, on his LinkedIn post here. Some pictures from the O-RAN session can be found on the LinkedIn post by Abdu Mudesir, Senior Vice President of Deutsche Telekom, here.

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Germany is starting to catch-up with other European countries regarding Mobile Data usage

Germany hosts one of  Europe’s largest telecom markets and number of significant operators which offer effective competition in the mobile and broadband sectors. Telekom Deutschland remains the dominant provider in the fixed-line segment, though there is increasing competition from operators including freenet, Vodafone Germany, and Telefónica Germany, each of which is making use of regulatory measures aimed at facilitating wholesale network access to provide fibre-based broadband services.

It took many years for Germany with 83M inhabitants to pass Finland (5.5M inhabitants) in total mobile data traffic, but Germany is now clearly ahead. Italy and France much ahead of Germany, though. pic.twitter.com/DHd2bB4WxV

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) March 23, 2021

The German mobile market is driven by mobile data, with the number of mobile broadband subscribers having increased rapidly in recent years. With LTE now effectively universally available, considerable progress has recently been made in building out 5G networks. Telekom’s 5G service provided about 80% population coverage by March 2021. This was expected to be increased to 90% coverage by the end of the year.

There are currently three network operators left in Germany: Deutsche Telekom (formerly known as T-Mobile), Vodafone, and O2 (owned by Telefónica) merged with e-plus (acquired by Telefónica).

There are also a number of MVNOs each belonging to one of the three major network operators. MVNOs are particularly popular for prepaid in Germany and are mostly cheaper than the MNOs. They now have a prepaid market share of more than 40%, which is among the highest in the world.

Some visitors are surprised to find out that the leading industrial powerhouse in Europe still has quite patchy mobile networks. One cannot expect Korean or Japanese speeds and coverage. Local users, politicians and major CEOs alike now put pressure on the three operators to improve the situation that lags behind other European countries what 4G/LTE coverage and speeds are concerned sold locally at rather high prices.

Which operators in Europe had the fastest growth in mobile data traffic in 2020?

Preliminary:
1. Telia Lithuania 86%
2. @vodafone_es 76%
3. Bite Lithuania 75%

Germany is finally moving some more bytes as well, but @vodafone_de not where @DT_IR and @o2de are pic.twitter.com/0mGiImP56I

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) March 30, 2021

2G and 3G: GSM mostly up to EDGE speed is on 900 and decreasingly on 1800 MHz and 3G is on 2100 MHz like in most of Europe. Almost the entire country is covered by 2G, few remote unpopulated areas remain without any coverage. 3G/UMTS up to DC-HSDPA+ speed is available in most of the populated areas with rather extended blank patches left in the countryside. Telekom has announced that it will re-farm the 3G spectrum to 4G and 5G and gradually switch off 3G in starting June 30th 2021.

4G/LTE: LTE has been rolled out on most common 4G frequencies in Europe on all operators: 800 MHz (band 20), 1800 MHz (band 3) and 2600 MHz (band 7). From 2017 on 900 MHz (band 8) and 2100 MHz (band 1) has been re-farmed from 2G and 3G. Band 28 on 700 MHz will be added from 2019 after digital TV has left this spectrum.

Deutsche Telekom is the previously state-owned, incumbent provider. It is the market leader in Germany with the best network. For a time it was called T-Mobile like in the US, but has reverted to its old name in Germany. While it caters mostly for postpaid, it still offers prepaid that used to be called Xtra Cards. Note that their rates are the highest in the country and are sold often cheaper by its subsidiary Congstar and MVNOs, not to mention its competitors.

Telekom has won all network tests within the last decade in the country. It offers coverage where no other network does and speeds mostly faster than its competitors.  But this comes at the highest prices of all operators. 4G/LTE is available at locations that are not covered by any other network and is available for 97% of population.

On the downside, it's indoor power on 4G/LTE is sometimes lower compared to Vodafone or o2. That's because Telekom mainly uses 1800 MHz B3 and 2600 MHz B7 in towns without any 800 MHz B20 fallback. To fix this problem, they now add 900 MHz B8 and 2100 MHz B1 where 800 MHz is not available. Note that Berlin's underground U-Bahn system is only partly covered so far.

The operator expects its 5G network to reach 90% of the country’s population by the end of this year. They currently provide coverage to 80% of the population. By the end of March, more than 66 million people in around 5,000 towns and cities across Germany will be able to use their 5G network.

Over 50,000 5G antennas are already transmitting with 5G across Germany. Deutsche Telekom is using multiple frequencies for its 5G expansion. The focus is on the 2.1 GHz and 3.6 GHz frequency bands. At the end of March, 5G will be available in 30 cities on the 3.6 GHz frequency following the deployment of nearly 1,000 antennas in Aachen, Augsburg, Berlin, Bonn, Braunschweig, Bremen, Darmstadt, Dortmund, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Frankfurt/Main, Hamburg, Hanover, Jena, Kiel, Cologne, Leipzig, Ludwigsburg, Munich, Nuremberg, Saarbrücken, Schwerin, Stuttgart, Wiesbaden and Wolfsburg.

According to Deutsche Telekom the primary 5G technology currently deployed in Germany is based on the 5G non-standalone (5G NSA) network architecture, which means that current’s 5G offerings are still technically dependent on a simultaneously available 4G network (LTE). With 5G standalone, the infrastructure in the core network will also be fully upgraded to a new, cloud-based 5G architecture.

According to the recent OpenSignal report Telekom remains the dominant operator as far as their awards table is concerned — the operator won five out of seven awards outright and is the joint winner for a sixth. However, it has been forced to share the 4G Availability award with O2 because of a surge in O2’s score since the last report. In addition, Telekom’s leads on Video Experience, Games Experience, Download Speed Experience, Upload Speed Experience and 4G Coverage Experience have all declined since last time due to its rivals in second place seeing larger increases in their scores.

Vodafone is considered the number two network in Germany which has become the biggest market of the UK-based provider. They cover almost 98% of the population by 4G/LTE in 2019.

Meanwhile their 3G network has been partly refarmed to 4G with only one remaining UMTS carrier (formerly three) in most cities. That is why Vodafone without 4G/LTE can't be recommended for heavy data users, because data speeds are often less than 1 Mbit/s in crowded areas on 3G.

Vodafone mostly uses 800 MHz (B20) frequency band for 4G/LTE away from large cities. Additionally, 700 MHz (B28), 900 MHz (B8), 1800 MHz (B3), 2100 MHz (B1) and 2600 MHz (B7) are employed.

5G has been started in a few places in 2019. All own branded Vodafone prepaid SIM cards can use it, but only a few handsets are so far capable of 3500 MHz (n78).

Vodafone Germany CEO has said they are the first in Europe to take off the so-called LTE training wheels of its 5G network, launching standalone (SA) 5G with vendor partner Ericsson.

All mobile radio sites in the 3.5 GHz range were switched over and now connect to an independent 5G core network, no longer relying on LTE. That includes 1,000 antennas in 170 cities and municipalities, according to Vodafone.

Large cities like Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Düsseldorf, are on the list, as well as smaller locations Magdeburg, Solingen, Bremen and Mainz. By the end of 2021, the mobile operator plans to up the number of radios connected to 5G standalone in Germany to around 4,000 – which calls for additional spectrum bands.

Vodafone used Ericsson’s 5G radio system gear, along with its Cloud Core for the SA 5G network.

The partners also converted a Frankfurt data center to 5G for cloud data processing closer to the customer. Two more are planned, located in Berlin and Munich, and expanding to a total of ten 5G data centers by 2023.

Vodafone launched 5G in Germany in 2019. In moving beyond non-standalone (NSA) 5G, which is what most carriers have used for initial 5G rollouts, Vodafone cited a variety of performance improvements. That includes connecting about ten-times as many people and machines per square kilometer (up to 1 million) simultaneously, compared to NSA 5G. Moving to standalone is also key for network slicing, a technique operators are looking at to drive new revenue models by allocating parts of the network to different users or customers.

Vodafone recently announced that its 5G network now reaches 25 million people across the country, with this set to rise to 30 million by the end of the year, exceeding its original target to cover 20 million Germans by end-2021. The firm has switched on more than 10,000 5G antennas at over 3,000 locations. It plans to implement a further 7,000 mobile upgrade and expansion projects in the twelve months to end-March 2022, including 3,000 projects to activate 9,000 5G antennas, as well as rolling out its 5G Standalone (5G SA) network, which currently comprises 1,000 antennas. In addition, from the end of June Vodafone will reallocate its former 3G spectrum to boost LTE coverage at 18,000 base stations. The 3G switch-off has already been implemented in the cities of Mainz, Wiesbaden and Chemnitz.

O2, owned by Telefónica, has now grown from Germany's smallest network to its biggest after the merger with E-Plus, what number of subscribers is concerned. The shops of E-Plus/Base have been rebranded and each customers can use also the both 2G and 3G networks nationwide and 4G/LTE and is available for 85% of population. This gives a better coverage in the countryside, but still not as widespread as Telekom or Vodafone. 4G/LTE has been opened for prepaid in 2016 on its own brand and most of their MVNOs.

O2 Deutschland currently offers 5G using 3.6 GHz frequencies, with around 1,000 antennas covering 30-plus cities. Now it has upgraded one 5G facility at Helene-Mayer-Ring 10 in Munich using carrier aggregation to offer a faster service, provided customers have the appropriate device, of course; the operator named the Xiaomi Mi 11 5G as an example.

It did not specify which frequencies it is aggregating with 3.6 GHz, instead making vague references to the potential of the 700 MHz and 1800 MHz bands for boosting 5G.The operator has recently launched standalone 5G network. 

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