Everyone is trying to sell something, right? Mostly, they are selling agents to telcos, it seems.

But then, they are vendors (Nvidia, Nokia, Blue Planet), and they are holed-up in Copenhagen at a network automation event (DTW Ignite) to talk about one thing (AI) for a whole week. So what did we expect? But the strategy in their marketing bumf is all pretty straight, pitching a rather standard change story about industrial evolution (rather than reinvention or revolution) where AI drives autonomy, and so drives operational improvements. The point is that the business remains: telcos are telcos, operators of a sort of critical infrastructure. Oh, and that, between the lines, the vendors capture most of the value from AI in the tooling layer.

Nvidia wants telcos to be like mini AI factories, scattered here and there on top of distributed compute infrastructure. It wants to sell AI hardware and software, including OSS agents, and make telcos a part of the cloud bloat at the edge. Nokia wants them to evolve, always, by buying its gear: autonomous network stacks, including its OSS/BSS agents, digital twins, and domain models. Blue Planet wants telcos to buy its OSS agents, as part of its multi-vendor orchestration shtick, to operationalize 5G slicing, among other things, from design to assurance – as it has done with Telefónica in Germany. I am being glib; it’s just all the sales talk.

There’s no disagreement here; this is the direction of travel – telco agents for telco orchestration, including slice delivery, fault resolution, service lifecycle. This is real, in evidence with operators pushing the ‘level-four’ envelope (per TM Forum / DTW Ignite) in certain silos in global operations. But RCR was delighted to be handed a Reader Forum post today from Neeraj Kumar, CTO at IT-SI Zenith System Solutions which sets out the grander revolution for telcos – where they climb the stack and capture value as AI platform companies, geared around data monetization and enterprise AI, with all their billing relationships, regulatory know-how, and metro reach.

It is a much better tale, albeit harder to tell in a product press release. But they can’t both be true, these things – because if vendors own the AI control layer, then telcos remain as infrastructure operators, and if telcos own AI platforms then vendors become commoditized tool providers. The most plausible outcome, of course and as always, is a layered one. It’s rarely a zero-sum game; it is never one for this industry, especially now. Hyperscalers will own AI models, clouds, and training infrastructure, and vendors, whether Nvidia or Nokia (not so separate), will make the automation systems and orchestration tools; and telcos will own critical infrastructure and regulated access.

If they get their ducks in a row, they might also capture some of the value higher up. Not all of it, or maybe even very much; but enough in that goldilocks sweet-spot between the utility porridge and hyperscaler honey to tilt the industry’s trajectory: as operators of critical infrastructure, owners of trusted customer relationships, custodians of regulated data, and hosts for distributed AI workloads. The debate matters. Nokia, Nvidia, and Blue Planet are all promising to make networks run better, with fewer manual interventions, lower costs, greater autonomy. Every telco wants that. But, per Neeraj, the dream-land scenario is about new growth and revenue streams.

Telcos have spent two decades improving operational efficiency while watching value accrue elsewhere. An autonomous network, staffed by a fleet of agents, is not really a new business model. When the Danish demos are packed up and the pilots are put to work, the question will be whether AI helps them be slicker versions of their old selves, or bigger and better ones.

James Blackman
Executive Editor
RCR Wireless News

RCR Top Stories

Golden opportunity: Telcos have spent years being told they’re irrelevant. Cloud players ate their lunch, OTT players took their money. That narrative is now dead – replaced by an opportunity most telco boardrooms haven’t understood yet.

Capacity crunch: TSMC’s bleeding-edge fabs and packaging lines are sold out into 2027. Nvidia, AMD, and Apple locked up the capacity early. Everyone else – including startups and chipmakers – is on the outside.

MDU consolidation: Scale is the defining advantage in MDU connectivity. In part 1 of a three-part series, analyst-consultancy Maravedis examines how economics, capital, and operator strategy are accelerating market consolidation.

Transformers assemble: Solid-state transformers will replace traditional ones in high-density AI data centers, enabling 800V DC power, improving efficiency and footprint, and meeting rising power demands, and other challenges.

Concrete sensors: Projects for Meta and Vantage Data Centers have used embedded concrete sensors to monitor in-situ strength and temperature, supporting construction decisions and helping manage schedules on large builds.

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Beyond the Headlines

Sovereignty muscle: Orange Business discusses its dual-mode AI platform strategy in the context of its own transformation, its sovereignty pitch to enterprises, and broader industry efforts to establish tech-co influence in the AI ecosystem.

IoT stacking: With 125m IoT connections and growth of 25 percent, the LoRa Alliance says LoRaWAN has moved beyond LPWAN niche status. Chief exec Alper Yegin explains why it is staking a claim as the wireless industry’s fourth pillar.

Sovereign NTN: India is tightening regs around foreign satellite operators as companies like Jio advance their sovereign satellite ambitions – in the context of spectrum allocation, security approvals, and competition with the likes of Starlink.

Telco T&M: AI, cloud-native architectures, and complex networks are transforming telco test and measurement, with operators under pressure to modernize assurance tools and adopt more data-driven testing strategies for 5G and beyond.

Variable power: Wärtsilä’s Sean Hughes says AI training workloads are creating highly variable power demands, increasing the importance of batteries, microgrids, and hybrid power architectures alongside on-site generation.

What We’re Reading

Nvidia agents: Nvidia is showing how telcos can raise their game at DTW with agentic AI, domain models, and distributed infra – to automate operations, create new revenues, and jump-start the transition toward AI-native networks.

Nokia agents: Nokia has added agentic AI to its AN portfolio to help automate network, service, and security. The additions use domain models, twins, and agents to support the industry’s progression toward full autonomy.

Blue Planet agents: Telefónica and Blue Planet are showing agents for slicing at DTW. AI agents embedded in OSS automation help to translate service intent into network slices, and streamline orchestration and reduce time-to-market.

P5G delivers: A study of 300-odd firms by Verizon Business says private 4G/5G is driving results: 100% could measure them, 85% reported productivity gains, 82% saw less downtime, 60% saw the upside three months. The ROI is real, then.

Enterprise agents: Hitachi is working with OpenAI to modernize legacy systems and strengthen cybersecurity. It is using AI agents and secure models to speed up enterprise system upgrades and improve cyber defense across critical industries.

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