Month: November 2025
Dell’Oro: RAN market stable, Mobile Core Network market +14% Y/Y with 72 5G SA core networks deployed
A recently published report from Dell’Oro Group notes that after two years of steep declines, initial estimates show that total Radio Access Network (RAN) revenue—including baseband, radio hardware, and software, excluding services—was flat outside of China and up when excluding North America.
“The nearly stable results for the 1Q25-3Q25 period bolster the flat growth thesis we have communicated for some time, reflecting the current state of the 5G network,” said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President of RAN market research at the Dell’Oro Group. “While near-term RAN expectations remain muted, some of the leading RAN suppliers are still cautiously optimistic that more investments are needed over the long-term to ensure the networks evolve from a connectivity pipe into an intelligence grid,” Pongratz added.
Additional highlights from the 3Q 2025 RAN report:
- In the quarter, growth in EMEA was nearly enough to offset declining revenue in North America and the Asia Pacific regions.
- The top 5 RAN suppliers, based on worldwide revenues for the 1Q25-3Q25 period, are Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE, and Samsung.
- Market is becoming more concentrated—the top five suppliers accounted for 96 percent of the 1Q25-3Q25 RAN market, up from 95 percent in 2024.
- Huawei and Ericsson’s worldwide RAN revenue share improved for the 1Q25-3Q25 period relative to 2024.
- Huawei and Nokia’s RAN revenue share outside of North America improved for the 1Q25-3Q25 period relative to 2024.
- The short-term outlook remains unchanged, with total RAN expected to remain mostly stable in 2026.
Dell’Oro Group’s RAN Quarterly Report offers a complete overview of the RAN industry, with tables covering manufacturers’ and market revenue for multiple RAN segments including 5G NR Sub-7 GHz, 5G NR mmWave, LTE, macro base stations and radios, small cells, Massive MIMO, Open RAN, and vRAN. The report also tracks the RAN market by region and includes a four-quarter outlook. To purchase this report, please contact us by email at [email protected].
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Another recent Dell’Oro Group report reveals that the Mobile Core Network (MCN) market revenue outside China surged 14% year-over-year (Y/Y) in 3Q 2025. Twelve Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have now selected to move forward with 5G-Advanced (the marketing term used for the next phases of 3GPP’s 5G specs, which started with Release 18 and continues with Release 19 and beyond).
“The Chinese market experienced abnormally high growth in 3Q 2024. As a result, the China market revenue declined 39 percent Y/Y for 3Q 2025,” stated Dave Bolan, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “The revenue for all the other regions increased, between 9 percent and 17 percent Y/Y, resulting in a worldwide revenue decline of 2 percent Y/Y. As noted, revenue worldwide excluding China rose 14 percent Y/Y, continuing the trend in subscribers migrating to 5G Standalone (5G SA), and revenue worldwide excluding North America declined 5 percent Y/Y.
“MNOs are moving forward with 5G SA (72 in our last count) and moving forward to take advantage of monetization opportunities. Network Slicing announcements continued. Of note is Reliance Jio (India), which announced 10 network slices with guaranteed service level agreements (SLAs) at scale. In October, T-Mobile launched Edge Control, providing enterprises with what Dell’Oro Group refers to as an MNO-provided Mobile Private Network (MPN). This is in response to the challenges of implementing 5G SA Private Wireless networks in the shared CBRS spectrum in the US.
“We have identified 12 MNOs that have commercially launched 5G-Advanced networks (not all this quarter), to take 5G to the next level with new features and performance. MNOs include: China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, CTM (Macau), Du (UAE), e& (UAE), HKT (Hong Kong), Singtel (Singapore), Telstra (Australia), T-Mobile (USA), YTL (Malaysia), and Zain (Kuwait),” added Bolan.
Additional highlights from the 3Q 2025 Mobile Core Network and Multi-Access Edge Computing Report include:
- Region rankings were: EMEA; Asia Pacific, excluding China; China and North America tied; CALA.
- Vendor rankings (with more than 5 percent share) were: Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, and ZTE.
The Dell’Oro Group Mobile Core Network & Multi-Access Edge Computing Quarterly Report offers complete, in-depth coverage of the market with tables covering manufacturers’ revenue, shipments, and average selling prices for Traditional Packet Core, Evolved Packet Core, 5G Packet Core, Policy, Subscriber Data Management, Signaling, Circuit Switched Core, and IMS Core by geographic regions. To purchase this report, please contact us at [email protected].
About Dell’Oro Group:
Dell’Oro Group is a market research firm that specializes in strategic competitive analysis in the telecommunications, security, enterprise networks, and data center infrastructure markets. Our firm provides in-depth quantitative data and qualitative analysis to facilitate critical, fact-based business decisions.
For more information, contact Dell’Oro Group at +1.650.622.9400 or visit https://www.delloro.com.
References:
MCN Market Up 14 Percent Outside China in 3Q 2025, According to Dell’Oro Group
Market research firms Omdia and Dell’Oro: impact of 6G and AI investments on telcos
Omdia on resurgence of Huawei: #1 RAN vendor in 3 out of 5 regions; RAN market has bottomed
Omdia: Huawei increases global RAN market share due to China hegemony
Dell’Oro Group: RAN Market Grows Outside of China in 2Q 2025
Dell’Oro: RAN revenue growth in 1Q2025; AI RAN is a conundrum
Dell’Oro: Global RAN Market to Drop 21% between 2021 and 2029
Dell’Oro: RAN market still declining with Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Samsung top vendors
Highlights of Dell’Oro’s 5-year RAN forecast
Dell’Oro: 2023 global telecom equipment revenues declined 5% YoY; Huawei increases its #1 position
Dell’Oro & Omdia: Global RAN market declined in 2023 and again in 2024
Dell’Oro: Mobile Core Network market has lowest growth rate since 4Q 2017
Dell’Oro: Mobile Core Network market driven by 5G SA networks in China
Dell’Oro: Mobile Core Network Market 5 Year Forecast
Dell’Oro: AI RAN to account for 1/3 of RAN market by 2029; AI RAN Alliance membership increases but few telcos have joined
Highlights of Ericsson’s Mobility Report – November 2025
The latest issue of the Ericsson Mobility Report states that 5G subscriptions now account for one-third of total mobile subscriptions. Mobile network data traffic grew slightly more than expected – 20 percent between Q3 2024 and Q3 2025. As 5G evolves, service providers are increasingly exploring innovative use cases and new monetization opportunities such as offering differentiated connectivity services and modernizing enterprise IT with 5G.
After many years of hype, network slicing, which requires a 5G SA core network, is finally gaining market traction with 33 communications service providers now offering variations of the technology. Of the 118 network slicing cases discovered by Ericsson’s researchers, 65 have moved beyond proof of concept and into commercial services, either as standalone subscription services or as add-on packages for consumer or business customers. Ericsson attributes this growth spurt to more widespread deployment of 5G SA core networks.
Looking further ahead, the 6G RAN standardization process has begun in 3GPP and ITU-R WP5D, with the first commercial launches expected in front-runner markets.
–>However, there has been no work initiated on the 6G core network in either 3GPP or ItU-T.
Ericsson’s report says the U.S., Japan, South Korea, China, India and some Gulf Cooperation Council countries are the 6G leaders. Global 6G subscriptions are likely to reach 180 million by the end of 2031, the report predicts.
We think that forecast is highly unlikely as the IMT 2030 (6G) RIT/SRITs recommendation won’t be completed till the end of 2030 with initial deployments sometime in 2031.
References:
https://www.ericsson.com/en/reports-and-papers/mobility-report/reports/november-2025
Dell’Oro: 4G and 5G FWA revenue grew 7% in 2024; MRFR: FWA worth $182.27B by 2032
Ericsson’s revenue drops, profits soar; deal with Vodafone and partnership with Export Development Canada look promising
Latest Ericsson Mobility Report talks up 5G SA networks and FWA
Ericsson Mobility Report touts “5G SA opportunities”
Ericsson Mobility Report: 5G monetization depends on network performance
Ericsson Mobility Report: 5G subscriptions in Q2 2022 are 690 million (vs. 8.3 billion total mobile users)
Nokia in major pivot from traditional telecom to AI, cloud infrastructure, data center networking and 6G
At its Capital Markets Day 2025 today, Nokia announced a new strategy to position itself to lead in the AI-driven transformation of networks and capture the value of the AI supercycle. Nokia also has new long-term financial targets, strategic KPIs for the business, an evolution of its operating model and changes to its Group Leadership Team. To execute on its new strategic direction, Nokia is simplifying its operational model into two primary operating segments of 1.] Network Infrastructure and 2.] Mobile Infrastructure.
These changes are intended to put Nokia on a stronger path to innovate, serve its customers and create shareholder value. The company now targets to grow its annual comparable operating profit to a range of EUR 2.7 to 3.2 billion by 2028.
The new strategy will focus on the following five strategic priorities:
- Accelerate growth in AI & Cloud
- Lead the next era of mobile connectivity with AI-native networks and 6G
- Grow by co-innovating with customers and partners
- Focus capital where Nokia can differentiate
- Unlock sustainable returns
Nokia will reorganize its business into two primary operating segments to better align to customer needs and accelerate innovation as AI increases demand for advanced connectivity. This reorganization will take effect as of 1 January 2026. “Nokia changed the world once by connecting people — and will again by connecting intelligence,” said Justin Hotard, President and CEO of Nokia. “As the trusted western provider of secure and advanced connectivity, our technology is powering the AI supercycle. From fixed to mobile infrastructure we are developing technology that accelerates value for our customers. I am proud of the work Team Nokia is doing to focus and lead this critical era in connectivity.”
The reorganization recognizes Network Infrastructure as a growth segment, positioned to capitalize on the rapid, global AI and data center build-out while continuing to innovate for its telecommunications customer base. The segment will continue to be led by David Heard and consists of three business units Optical Networks, IP Networks and Fixed Networks.
The new Mobile Infrastructure segment will bring together Nokia’s Core Networks portfolio, Radio Networks portfolio and Technology Standards, formerly Nokia Technologies. It will be positioned for core and radio network technology and services leadership to lead the industry to AI-native networks and 6G. The new segment brings together a portfolio whose value creation is founded on mobile communication technologies based on 3GPP standards with a strong cash flow position underpinned by IP licensing. It will be led by Nokia CEO Justin Hotard on an interim basis and will consist of three business units Core Software, Radio Networks and Technology Standards.
Nokia is announcing additional changes in its leadership team, effective January 1, 2026. Raghav Sahgal will take the position of Nokia’s Chief Customer Officer, and will continue in the Group Leadership Team, driving a seamless customer experience for Nokia’s customers. Patrik Hammarén will continue in the Group Leadership Team as President, Technology Standards, formerly Nokia Technologies, reflecting the significant value technology standards creates for Nokia. In addition, Tommi Uitto will step down from the Group Leadership Team, effective 31 December.
Nokia plans to move the following non-core business units into Portfolio Businesses. Nokia plans to determine the future of these units by the end of 2026, which may include selling them off.
- Fixed Wireless Access CPE (currently in Fixed Networks in Network Infrastructure)
- Site Implementation and Outside Plant (currently in Fixed Networks in Network Infrastructure)
- Enterprise Campus Edge (currently in Cloud and Network Services)
- Microwave Radio (currently in Mobile Networks)
Nokia Defense is being launched as an incubation unit to serve as the central go-to-market and R&D hub for Nokia’s defense portfolio. Building on the strong foundation of Nokia Federal Solutions in the US, the company sees further opportunities in the US, Finland and other allied countries to deliver defense-grade solutions based on Nokia’s core technologies in Network and Mobile infrastructure.
Nokia is introducing a series of strategic Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which best illustrate the expected outcomes of Nokia’s strategy. These KPIs for the business are not part of the group level financial outlook.
- Net sales growth in Network Infrastructure: Nokia targets 6-8% net sales CAGR during 2025-2028. This includes a 10-12% target for the combined Optical Networks and IP Networks.
- Network Infrastructure operating margin: 13% to 17% by 2028
- Mobile Infrastructure gross margin: 48-50% by 2028
- Mobile Infrastructure operating profit: Grow from a base of EUR 1.5 billion
- Group Common and Other operating expenses: EUR 150 million operating expenses down from the current EUR 350 million run-rate by 2028.
- Free cash flow conversion: Nokia targets to deliver free cash flow conversion from comparable operating profit of between 65% and 75%.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Comment and Analysis:
The restructure is Nokia’s biggest announcement since October’s news that Nvidia made a $1 billion investment in the the company to develop AI-RAN (Radio Access Network) products and 6G platforms.
Nokia has been making sizable strides into the data center networking, leveraging Hotard’s expertise at Intel where he headed their data center group:
- The Finland headquartered vendor became the primary networking partner for Nscale, the ambitious data center at the center of OpenAI’s Stargate buildout in Europe.
- Nokia also introduced a new family of high-performance 7220 IXR-H6 data center switches, capable of 102.4 Terabits per second throughput with 1.6 Terabit Ethernet interface speeds. These switches are designed to meet the demands of large-scale AI data centers (up to one million XPUs) and are compliant with Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC) specifications.
- The company has enhanced its Event-Driven Automation (EDA) platform with new AIOps (AI for IT Operations) features, including a natural language chatbot called “AskEDA” to aid network troubleshooting and automation, which can reduce downtime by up to 96%.
- Acquisition of optical networking equipment vendor Infinera Corp which specializes in data center interconnect.
- Nokia launched an “Autonomous Network Fabric” to accelerate network automation using a library of telco-trained AI models and integrated security.
- Nokia is using AI-powered solutions, such as its MantaRay Energy software and “extreme deep sleep mode” in 5G radios, to optimize energy consumption in mobile networks, aiming for “zero energy use at zero traffic.
The new product strategy, effective January 1, 2026, will center around two primary, simplified operating segments:
1. Network Infrastructure
- Product Focus: Optical Networks, IP Networks, and Fixed Networks.
- Strategic Goal: Accelerate growth in AI & Cloud and drive innovation in data center networking and high-capacity transport solutions. The company aims for 6-8% annual sales growth in this segment from 2025 to 2028.
- Key Initiative: A major $1 billion partnership with Nvidia to enhance network capabilities, highlighting the AI focus.
- Product Focus: Core Software, Radio Networks, and Technology Standards (formerly Nokia Technologies).
- Strategic Goal: Lead the industry toward “AI-native networks” and the development of 6G technology, building on existing and future 3GPP specs and ITU-R IMT 2030 recommendations (standards).
Comment: Since IMT 2030 (6G) RIT/SRITs standards won’t be completed till the end of 2030, there will be a long lead time to revenue and profitability in Nokia’s mobile infrastructure segment. Furthermore, its AI RAN efforts face substantial resistance from wireless telcos who would be the main customers of that niche technology.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
About Nokia:
Nokia is a global leader in connectivity for the AI era. With expertise across fixed, mobile, and transport networks, powered by the innovation of Nokia Bell Labs.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
References:
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/nokia-cleans-house-in-full-ai-data-center-pivot/
Nvidia pays $1 billion for a stake in Nokia to collaborate on AI networking solutions
Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, Nokia and Nvidia AI-RAN research center in Indonesia amongst telco skepticism
Nokia Bell Labs and KDDI Research partner for 6G energy efficiency and network resiliency
Nokia and Rohde & Schwarz collaborate on AI-powered 6G receiver years before IMT 2030 RIT submissions to ITU-R WP5D
Nokia & Deutsche Bahn deploy world’s first 1900 MHz 5G radio network meeting FRMCS requirements
Highlights of Nokia’s Smart Factory in Oulu, Finland for 5G and 6G innovation
Will the wave of AI generated user-to/from-network traffic increase spectacularly as Cisco and Nokia predict?
Highlights of 2025 Broadband Nation Expo: Comcast, T-Mobile keynotes + selected quotes
Over 100 ISPs from across the U.S., vendors in the broadband ecosystem, organizations and more gathered in Orlando, FL November 17-19th for the TIA’s annual Broadband Nation Expo, to talk about the challenges of delivering broadband today. Keynote speakers discussed topics including Comcast’s 10G network technologies and AI, T-Mobile’s fixed wireless access strategy, AT&T’s fiber expansion, and Google’s use of AI in data center innovation.
- Future-proofing the network: Strategies for evolving existing broadband infrastructure to meet increasing demands from emerging technologies like AI, advanced streaming, and more.
- 10G technology and multigigabit speeds: Nafshi discussed progress and plans for delivering multigigabit upload and download speeds to millions of Americans using this standard.
- Network resilience: Insights into how Comcast is building a more resilient network to keep communities connected, particularly in the face of severe weather events.
- Innovation and strategy: Leading with purpose and innovation in the era of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.
- Core-to-edge intelligence: The integration of artificial intelligence and a robust fiber backbone to create a smarter, faster, and more reliable connectivity experience for customers.
Comcast is using artificial intelligence (AI) to create a “smarter,” self-healing 10G network, emphasizing distributed AI at the network edge to improve customer experience and network reliability. He noted that investments in 10G technologies like DOCSIS 4.0 and next-generation amplifiers are aimed at future-proofing the network for anticipated data usage growth. In particular. Comcast applies AI at various levels of its 10G network for automation, self-healing, performance optimization, and cybersecurity. This approach is designed to create a “smarter” and more resilient network, with a focus on real-time, distributed intelligence at the network’s edge.
- Predictive maintenance: Using AI and machine learning (ML), the network can analyze performance data to identify issues before they impact customers, reducing the time needed for repairs. The network also automatically detects when a customer’s modem is offline and analyzes the data to determine the cause of the outage.
- Capacity scaling: The Octave platform uses AI to automatically increase network capacity in areas experiencing unexpected spikes in data traffic, such as during live-streamed events.
- Traffic rerouting: AI agents can perform large-scale tasks like automatically rerouting data traffic around fiber cuts to prevent service interruptions.
- Automated deployment: With its AI and ML capabilities, Comcast automates over 99.7% of all software changes on the network, which also helps prevent human-caused errors.
- In-home WiFi optimization: Every hour, AI analyzes thousands of data points from millions of network devices to enhance in-home WiFi performance. The xFi platform also uses AI to dynamically optimize home WiFi based on user behavior and signal interference.
- Outage restoration: AI helps accelerate recovery efforts during extreme weather by detecting mass outages faster, pinpointing the cause, and identifying where technicians are needed most.
- Threat mitigation: AI agents are being trialed to identify cyber threats and take proactive measures to mitigate them, providing end-to-end cybersecurity protection.
- Optimized power usage: AI agents can also optimize power usage in the network based on spikes and lulls in data consumption.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
II. T-Mobile Chief Broadband Officer Allan Samson said the “uncarrier” has gained sizable 5G FWA market share in urban markets (it’s offered in Santa Clara, CA- hometown of this author). 70% of T-Mobile’s FWA activations come from the “top 100” U.S. cities and approximately 65% of fixed wireless sales per quarter happen in suburban and urban markets.
Samson said improved quality of service is one reason more people in urban areas are drawn to FWA, touting T-Mobile’s average FWA download speed sits at 239 Mbps and latency has decreased to about 34 milliseconds. T-Mobile has now converted every fixed wireless customer to a standalone 5G core network (specified by 3GPP). “From a technology perspective, this so-called cell phone quality internet has not only made a lot of progress but has so much more room to run in terms of the innovation,” Samson added.
He admitted T-Mobile’s lack of expertise in fiber optic networks: “Our approach is real simple. We don’t build wireline networks, you’ve got to know what you’re not good at,” he said. Hence T-Mobile’s decision to acquire both Lumos and Metronet. Samson said T-Mobile expects to close 2025 with “well north of 3 million homes passed” and “hopefully about 900,000 to a million customers.”
Selected Quotes:
Dr. Dong Hao, market technology development manager, Optical Communications at Corning, told a breakfast session about Meta’s 1 million GPU data center campus in Louisiana. “It’s so gigantic that it’s going to consume 8 million miles of optical fiber in that data center, alone,” he said. “How do you manufacture that? We are dealing with the capacity crunch. It’s a high-priority issue.”
In the age of AI….Robin Olds, senior business development manager, Broadband Program Office, Americas Service Provider, from Cisco, said that service providers are getting more comfortable with AI in the network, given rising costs. “Trusting the networks to make changes on the fly – that is a really hard thing for humans to do, but providers are starting to look at that to save time and money.”
“It’s about getting smarter networks, not just faster networks,” said Jeff Brown, senior director, Segment Marketing, Calix, said during a panel on access technologies.
Mike Lubin, senior advisor and VP at ViaSat thinks LEO satellite transport will emerge as FWA backhaul “in the interim” until fiber or another optical communications technology comes along. Some combination of satellite and FWA is “going to be the paradigm” for connecting about 2.6 billion unconnected folks globally.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Point Topic: Global Broadband Subscribers in Q2 2025: 5G FWA, DSL, satellite and FTTP
U.S. BEAD overhaul to benefit Starlink/SpaceX at the expense of fiber broadband providers
Broadband Forum new work areas to enable broadband services & apps
UK’s CityFibre launches 5.5Gbit/s wholesale broadband service- 3 times faster than BT Openreach
Google Fiber and Nokia demo network slicing for home broadband in GFiber Labs
VC4 Advances OSS Transformation with an Efficient and Reliable AI enabled Network Inventory System
By Juhi Rani assisted by IEEE Techblog editors Ajay Lotan Thakur and Sridhar Talari Rajagopal
Introduction:
This year, 2025, VC4 [a Netherlands Head Office (H/O) based Operational Support System (OSS) software provider] has brought sharp industry focus to a challenge that many experience in telecom. Many operators/carriers still struggle with broken, unreliable, and disconnected inventory systems. While many companies are demoing AI, intent-based orchestration, and autonomous networks, VC4’s newly branded offering, Service2Create (or S2C as it’s known to some), is refreshingly grounded. Also as we have learnt very quickly, bad data into AI is a “no-no”. None of the orchestration and autonomous networks, will work accurately if your OSS is built on flawed data. The age-old saying “Garbage in, Garbage out” comes to mind.
VC4’s platform, Service2Create (S2C), is a next-generation OSS inventory system that supports the evolving needs of telecom operators looking to embrace AI, automate workflows, and run leaner, smarter operations. Service2Create is built from over two decades of experience of inventory management solutions – IMS. By focusing on inventory accuracy and network transparency, S2C gives operators a foundation they can trust.
Inventory: The Most Underestimated Barrier to Transformation
In a post from TM Forum, we observed that operators across the world are making huge investments in digital transformation but many are slowed by a problem closer to the ground: the inability to know what exactly is deployed in the network, where it is, and how it’s interconnected.
VC4 calls this the “silent blocker” to OSS evolution.
Poor mis-aligned inventory undermines everything. It breaks service activations, triggers unnecessary truck rolls, causes billing mismatches, and frustrates assurance teams. Field engineers often discover real-world conditions that don’t match what’s in the system, while planners and support teams struggle to keep up. The problem doesn’t just stop with network data.
In many cases, customer records were also out of date or incomplete… and unknown inventory can also be a factor. Details like line types, distance from the central office, or whether loading coils were present often didn’t match reality. For years, this was one of the biggest issues for operators. Customer databases and network systems rarely aligned, and updates often took weeks or months. Engineers had to double-check every record before activating a service, which slowed delivery and increased errors. It was a widespread problem across the industry and one that many operators have been trying to fix ever since.
Over time, some operators tried to close this gap with data audits and manual reconciliation projects, but those fixes never lasted long. Networks change every day, and by the time a cleanup was finished, the data was already out of sync again.
Modern inventory systems take a different approach by keeping network and customer data connected in real time. They:
- Continuously sync with live network data so records stay accurate.
- Automatically validate what’s in the field against what’s stored in the system.
- Update both customer and network records when new services are provisioned.
In short, we’re talking about network auto-discovery and reconciliation, something that Service2Create does exceptionally well. This also applies for unknown records, duplicate records and records with naming inconsistencies/variances.
It is achieved through continuous network discovery that maps physical and logical assets, correlates them against live service models, and runs automated reconciliation to detect discrepancies such as unknown elements, duplicates, or naming mismatches. Operators can review and validate these findings, ensuring that the inventory always reflects the true, real-time network state. A more detailed explanation can be found in the VC4 Auto Discovery & Reconciliation guide which can be downloaded for free.
Service2Create: Unified, Reconciled, and AI-Ready
Service2Create is designed to reflect the actual, current state of the network across physical, logical, service and virtual layers. Whether operators are managing fiber rollout, mobile backhaul, IP/MPLS cores, or smart grids, S2C creates a common source of truth. It models infrastructure end-to-end, automates data reconciliation using discovery, and integrates with orchestration platforms and ticketing tools.
To make the difference clearer here is the table below shows how Service2Create compares with the older inventory systems still used by many operators. Traditional tools depend on manual updates and disconnected data sources, while Service2Create keeps everything synchronized and validated in real time.
Comparison between legacy inventory tools and Service2Create (S2C)
| Feature | Legacy OSS Tools | VC4 Service2Create (S2C) |
|---|---|---|
| Data reconciliation | Manual or periodic | Automated and continuous |
| Inventory accuracy | Often incomplete or outdated | Real-time and verified |
| Integration effort | Heavy customization needed | Standard API-based integration |
| Update cycle | It takes days or weeks | Completed in hours |
| AI readiness | Low, needs data cleanup | High, with consistent and normalized data |
What makes it AI-ready isn’t just compatibility with new tools, it’s data integrity. VC4 understands that AI and automation only perform well when they’re fed accurate, reliable, and real-time data. Without that, AI is flying blind.
Built-in Geographic Information System (GIS) capabilities help visualize the network in geographic context, while no/low-code workflows and APIs support rapid onboarding and customization. More than software, S2C behaves like a data discipline framework for telecom operations.
Service2Create gives operators a current, trusted view of their network, improving accuracy and reducing the time it takes to keep systems aligned.
AI is Reshaping OSS… But only if the Data is Right
AI is driving the next wave of OSS transformation from automated fault resolution and dynamic provisioning to predictive maintenance and AI-guided assurance. But it’s increasingly clear: AI doesn’t replace the need for accuracy; it demands it.
In 2025, one common thread across operators and developers was this: telcos want AI to reduce costs, shorten response times, and simplify networks. According to a GSMA analysis, many operators continue to struggle as their AI systems depend on fragmented and incomplete datasets, which reduces overall model accuracy.
VC4’s message is cutting through: AI is only as useful as the data that feeds it. Service2Create ensures the inventory is trustworthy, reconciled daily with the live network, and structured in a way AI tools can consume. It’s the difference between automating chaos and enabling meaningful, autonomous decisions.
Service2Create has been adopted with operators across Europe and Asia. In national fiber networks, it’s used to coordinate thousands of kilometers of rollout and maintenance. In mixed fixed-mobile environments, it synchronizes legacy copper, modern fiber, and 5G transport into one unified model.
Designed for Operational Reality
VC4 didn’t build Service2Create for greenfield labs or ideal conditions. The platform is designed for real-world operations: brownfield networks, legacy system integrations, and hybrid IT environments. Its microservices-based architecture and API-first design make it modular and scalable, while its no/low-code capabilities allow operators to adapt it without long customization cycles. See the diagram below.
S2C is deployable in the cloud or on-premises and integrates smoothly with Operational Support System / Business Support System (OSS/BSS) ecosystems including assurance, CRM, and orchestration. The result? Operators don’t have to rip and replace their stack – they can evolve it, anchored on a more reliable inventory core.
What Industry Analysts are Saying
In 2025, telco and IT industry experts are also emphasizing that AI’s failure to deliver consistent ROI in telecom is often due to unreliable base systems. One IDC analyst summed it up: “AI isn’t failing because the models are bad, it’s failing because operators still don’t know what’s in their own networks.”
A senior architect from a Tier 1 European CSP added, “We paused a closed-loop automation rollout because our service model was based on inventory we couldn’t trust. VC4 was the first vendor we saw this year that has addressed this directly and built a product around solving it.”
This year the takeaway is clear: clean inventory isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s step one.
Looking Ahead: AI-Driven Operations Powered by Trusted Inventory
VC4 is continuing to enhance Service2Create with capabilities that support AI-led operations. Currently, S2C is enhanced with AI-powered natural language interfaces through Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. This creates a revolutionary way for users to access their data and makes it also easier for them to do so. Simply ask for what you need, in plain language, and receive instant, accurate results from your systems of record.
The S2C platform now offers multiple synchronized access methods:
- Natural Language Interface
- Ask questions in plain language: “Show me network capacity issues in Amsterdam”
- AI translates requests into precise system queries
- No training required – productive from day one
- Direct API Access via MCP
- Programmatic access using Language Integrated Query (LINQ) expressions
- Perfect for integrations and automated workflows
- Industry-standard authentication (IDP)
- S2C Visual Platform
- Full-featured GUI for power users
- Parameterized deeplinks for instant component access
- Low/no-code configuration capabilities
- Hybrid Workflows
-
- Start with AI chat, graduate to power tools
- AI generates deeplinks to relevant S2C dashboards
Export to Excel/CSV for offline analysis
-
What It All Comes Down To
Digital transformation sounds exciting on a conference stage, but in the trenches of telecom operations, it starts with simpler questions. Do you know what’s on your network? Can you trust the data? Can your systems work together?
That’s what Service2Create is built for. It helps operators take control of their infrastructure, giving them the confidence to automate when ready and the clarity to troubleshoot when needed.
VC4’s approach isn’t flashy. It’s focused. And that’s what makes it so effective – a direction supported by coverage from Subseacables.net, which reported on VC4’s partnership with AFR-IX, to automate and modernize network operations across the Mediterranean.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
About the Author:
Juhi Rani is an SEO specialist at VC4 B.V. in the Netherlands. She has successfully directed and supervised teams, evaluated employee skills and knowledge, identified areas of improvement, and provided constructive feedback to increase productivity and maintain quality standards.
Juhi earned a B. Tech degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from RTU in Jaipur, India in 2015.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Ajay Lotan Thakur and Sridhar Talari Rajagopal are esteemed members of the IEEE Techblog Editorial Team. Read more about them here.
ITU’s Facts and Figures 2025 report: steady progress in Internet connectivity, but gaps in quality and affordability
Overview:
The world’s online population grew by more than 240 million people in 2025, according to a new ITU Facts and Figures 2025 report. The new estimates confirm continuing progress in expanding digital connectivity, while pointing to differences in quality that impact how users benefit from Internet use. Globally, an estimated 6 billion people – about three-quarters of the world’s population – are using the Internet in 2025, up from a revised estimate of 5.8 billion in 2024. However, 2.2 billion people remain offline, down from a revised estimate of 2.3 billion in 2024. Overall, the report’s findings underline the importance of digital infrastructure, affordable services and skills training to ensure that everyone can truly benefit from advancing technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).
“In a world where digital technologies are essential to so much of daily life, everyone should have the opportunity to benefit from being online,” said ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin. “This report highlights how today’s digital divides are being defined by speed, reliability, affordability, and skills, all of which we must prioritize as we work toward our mission of universal connectivity.”
Connectivity’s quality challenge:
For the first time, Facts and Figures estimates the total number of 5G subscriptions, which now account for about one-third – or around 3 billion – of all mobile broadband subscriptions worldwide.
In 2025, 5G networks are estimated to cover 55 per cent of the world’s population, reflecting strong momentum in advanced mobile technologies. Coverage, however, remains uneven, with 84 per cent of people in high-income countries having access to 5G, compared with only 4 per cent in low-income countries.
While Facts and Figures shows that 4G and 3G services are available to most of the global population, these services are not best suited for keeping pace with advancing technologies.
Estimates in the report reveal deep contrasts in intensity of use as an indicator of the quality gap. A typical user in a high-income country now generates nearly eight times more mobile data than one in a low-income country.
Making connectivity meaningful:
Facts and Figures 2025 highlights that affordability and digital skills remain essential to achieving universal and meaningful connectivity – reached when everyone can access the Internet with high-quality service, at an affordable cost, whenever and wherever needed.
Globally, the median price of a data-only mobile broadband basket decreased, but access remains unaffordable in around 60 per cent of low- and middle-income countries.
Data also suggest that most Internet users possess basic skills, while more advanced capabilities – such as online safety, problem-solving and digital content creation – are being developed more slowly.
“Reliable data are the foundation of effective digital policies and of our shared vision to connect the world,” said ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau Director Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava. “
Achieving that vision will require sustained and well-targeted efforts – in infrastructure, in digital skills, and in data systems. By working together and directing resources where the needs are greatest, we can ensure that no one is left behind and that everyone benefits fully and safely from the opportunities of the digital age.”
The report underscores the persistence of several digital divides:
- 94 per cent of people in high-income countries use the Internet, in contrast to only 23 per cent in low-income countries;
- 96 per cent of those offline live in low- and middle-income countries;
- 77 per cent of men are online compared to 71 per cent of women;
- 85 per cent in urban areas are online versus 58 per cent in rural areas;
- 82 per cent of 15–24-year-olds use the Internet, compared with 72 per cent of the rest of the population.
Facts and Figures 2025 provides global, regional and income group estimates for indicators related to Internet use, mobile network coverage, Internet subscriptions, Internet traffic, affordability, digital skills and mobile phone ownership.
Getty Images – credit: fotograzia
About the ITU:
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the United Nations agency for digital technologies, driving innovation for people and the planet with 194 Member States and a membership of over 1,000 companies, universities, civil society, and international and regional organizations. Established in 1865, ITU coordinates the global use of the radio spectrum and satellite orbits, establishes international technology standards, drives universal connectivity and digital services, and is helping to make sure everyone benefits from sustainable digital transformation, including the most remote communities. From artificial intelligence (AI) to quantum, from satellites and submarine cables to advanced mobile and wireless broadband networks, ITU is committed to connecting the world and beyond. Learn more: www.itu.int
References:
https://www.itu.int/en/mediacentre/Pages/PR-2025-11-17-Facts-and-Figures.aspx
An Uncertain Future for the Global Internet
NTT DOCOMO successful outdoor trial of AI-driven wireless interface with 3 partners
NTT DOCOMO has successfully executed the world’s premier outdoor field trial of real-time transceiver systems leveraging artificial intelligence (AI)-driven wireless technology, a critical advancement for sixth-generation (6G) mobile communications (AKA IMT 2030).
Conducted in collaboration with parent company NTT, Inc. (NTT), Nokia Bell Labs, and SK Telecom Co., Ltd, the field trials were held across three sites in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture. The results validated that the application of AI optimized system throughput (transmission speed), achieving up to a 100% improvement over conventional, non-AI methods under identical environmental conditions, effectively doubling communication speeds.
Wireless communication quality can be compromised by fluctuations in radio propagation environments, leading to unstable connections. To mitigate this challenge, the partners developed “AI-AI technology,” which applies AI to both the transmitting and receiving ends of the wireless interface. This system dynamically optimizes modulation and demodulation schemes based on prevailing radio conditions, facilitating stable communication across diverse use cases. The efficacy of this technology had previously been confirmed in indoor environments.
The recent field trials aimed to verify the technology’s stable performance in complex outdoor settings, where radio conditions are subject to greater variability from factors such as temperature, weather, and physical obstructions.
This innovative AI wireless technology was evaluated across three distinct outdoor courses with varying propagation conditions, including the presence of obstacles and terminal mobility:
- Course 1: A public road featuring gentle curves, with a test vehicle traveling up to 40 km/h.
- Course 2: An environment with partial signal obstructions.
- Course 3: A road with minimal obstructions, with a test vehicle traveling up to 60 km/h.
In all test scenarios, the technology demonstrated its ability to compensate for signal degradation, confirming enhanced communication speeds. Specifically, in the highly complex propagation conditions of Course 1, the AI-AI technology yielded an average throughput improvement of 18% and a maximum increase of 100% compared to traditional methods.
These findings enable higher-speed data transmission for users and allow network operators to enhance spectrum efficiency and deliver superior quality of service (QoS). The successful outdoor validation marks a significant milestone toward the practical implementation of 6G systems, which promise a combination of high wireless transmission efficiency and reduced power consumption. NTT DOCOMO remains committed to refining this technology under a wide range of conditions and accelerating R&D efforts toward 6G realization, while simultaneously collaborating with global partners on 6G standardization (in 3GPP and ITU-R WP5D) and deployment.
This new technology will be featured at the NTT R&D FORUM 2025 hosted by NTT, scheduled from November 19–21 and November 25–26, 2025.
These three AI-wireless field trials represent the latest joint effort stemming from the collaborative AI research partnership of DOCOMO, parent NTT, Nokia Bell Labs, and SK Telecom Co, which was established at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February 2024.
NTT Docomo has forged additional 6G alliances with a range of partners, including Ericsson, domestic Japanese suppliers Fujitsu and NEC, and testing specialists Keysight Technologies and Rohde & Schwarz.
This year has seen an increase in partnerships among Korean and Japanese operators. Earlier this month, KDDI‘s research partnership with Nokia Bell Labs was announced, focusing on achieving 6G energy efficiency and enhanced network resilience. Samsung and SoftBank entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last month to co-develop prospective next-generation technologies, encompassing 6G, AI-driven Radio Access Networks (AI RAN), and Large Telecom Models (LTMs).
In a separate MoU signed in March, KT‘s and Samsung’s collaboration was formalized to jointly advance 6G antenna technology. Additionally, KT has maintained a separate research engagement with Nokia centered on semantic communications research.
About NTT DOCOMO:
NTT DOCOMO, Japan’s leading mobile operator with over 91 million subscribers, is one of the global leaders in 3G, 4G and 5G mobile network technologies.
Under the slogan “Bridging Worlds for Wonder & Happiness,” DOCOMO is actively collaborating with global partners to expand its business scope from mobile services to comprehensive solutions, aiming to deliver unsurpassed value and drive innovation in technology and communications, ultimately to support positive change and advancement in global society.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
References:
https://www.docomo.ne.jp/english/info/media_center/pr/2025/1117_00.html
https://www.docomo.ne.jp/english/
https://www.lightreading.com/6g/ntt-docomo-doubles-6g-throughput-in-ai-trials
NTT DOCOMO OREX brand offers a pre-integrated solution for Open RAN
NTT’s IOWN provides ultra low latency and energy efficiency in Japan and Hong Kong
NTT & Yomiuri: ‘Social Order Could Collapse’ in AI Era
NTT Docomo will use its wireless technology to enter the metaverse
Expose: AI is more than a bubble; it’s a data center debt bomb
We’ve previously described the tremendous debt that AI companies have assumed, expressing serious doubts that it will ever be repaid. This article expands on that by pointing out the huge losses incurred by the AI startup darlings and that AI poster child Open AI won’t have the cash to cover its costs 9which are greater than most analysts assume). Also, we quote from the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Barron’s, along with a dire forecast from the Center for Public Enterprise.
In Saturday’s print edition, The Wall Street Journal notes:
OpenAI and Anthropic are the two largest suppliers of generative AI with their chatbots ChatGPT and Claude, respectively, and founders Sam Altman and Dario Amodei have become tech celebrities.
What’s only starting to become clear is that those companies are also sinkholes for AI losses that are the flip side of chunks of the public-company profits.
OpenAI hopes to turn profitable only in 2030, while Anthropic is targeting 2028. Meanwhile, the amounts of money being lost are extraordinary.
It’s impossible to quantify how much cash flowed from OpenAI to big tech companies. But OpenAI’s loss in the quarter equates to 65% of the rise in underlying earnings of Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta together. That ignores Anthropic, from which Amazon recorded a profit of $9.5B from its holding in the loss-making company in the quarter.
OpenAI committed to spend $250 billion more on Microsoft’s cloud and has signed a $300 billion deal with Oracle, $22 billion with CoreWeave and $38 billion with Amazon, which is a big investor in rival Anthropic.
OpenAI doesn’t have the income to cover its costs. It expects revenue of $13 billion this year to more than double to $30 billion next year, then to double again in 2027, according to figures provided to shareholders. Costs are expected to rise even faster, and losses are predicted to roughly triple to more than $40 billion by 2027. Things don’t come back into balance even in OpenAI’s own forecasts until total computing costs finally level off in 2029, allowing it to scrape into profit in 2030.
The losses at OpenAI that has helped boost the profits of Big Tech may, in fact, understate the true nature of the problem. According to the Financial Times:
OpenAI’s running costs may be a lot more than previously thought, and that its main backer Microsoft is doing very nicely out of their revenue share agreement.
OpenAI appears to have spent more than $12.4bn at Azure on inference compute alone in the last seven calendar quarters. Its implied revenue for the period was a minimum of $6.8bn. Even allowing for some fudging between annualised run rates and period-end totals, the apparent gap between revenues and running costs is a lot more than has been reported previously.
The apparent gap between revenues and running costs is a lot more than has been reported previously. If the data is accurate, then it would call into question the business model of OpenAI and nearly every other general-purpose LLM vendor.
Also, the financing needed to build out the data centers at the heart of the AI boom is increasingly becoming an exercise in creative accounting. The Wall Street Journal reports:
The Hyperion deal is a Frankenstein financing that combines elements of private-equity, project finance and investment-grade bonds. Meta needed such financial wizardry because it already issued a $30B bond in October that roughly doubled its debt load overnight.
Enter Morgan Stanley, with a plan to have someone else borrow the money for Hyperion. Blue Owl invested about $3 billion for an 80% private-equity stake in the data center, while Meta retained 20% for the $1.3 billion it had already spent. The joint venture, named Beignet Investor after the New Orleans pastry, got another $27 billion by issuing bonds that pay off in 2049, $18 billion of which Pimco purchased. That debt is on Beignet’s balance sheet, not Meta’s.
Dan Fuss, vice chairman of Loomis Sayles told Barrons: “We are good at taking credit risk,” Dan said, cheerfully admitting to having the scars to show for it. That is, he added, if they know the credit. But that’s become less clear with the recent spate of mind-bendingly complex megadeals, with myriad entities funding multibillion-dollar data centers. Fuss thinks current data-center deals are too speculative. The risk is too great and future revenue too uncertain. And yields aren’t enough to compensate, he concluded.
Increased wariness about monster hyper-scaler borrowings has sent the cost of insuring their debt against default soaring. Credit default swaps (CDS) more than doubled for Oracle since September, after it issued $18 billion in public bonds and took out a $38 billion private loan. CoreWeave’s CDS gapped higher this past week, mirroring the slide of the data-center company’s stock.
According to the Bank Credit Analyst (BCA), capex busts weigh on the economy, which further hits asset prices, the firm says. Following the dot-com bust, a housing bubble grew, which burst in the 2008-09 financial crisis. “It is far from certain that a new bubble will emerge (after the AI bubble bursts) this time around, in which case the resulting recession could be more severe than the one in 2001,” BCA notes.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The widening gap between the expenditures needed to build out AI data centers and the cash flows generated by the products they enable creates a colossal risk which could crash asset values of AI companies. The Center for Public Enterprise reports that it’s “Bubble or Nothing.”
Should economic conditions in the tech sector sour, the burgeoning artificial intelligence (AI) boom may evaporate—and, with it, the economic activity associated with the boom in data center development.
Circular financing, or “roundabouting,” among so-called hyperscaler tenants—the leading tech companies and AI service providers—create an interlocking liability structure across the sector. These tenants comprise an incredibly large share of the market and are financing each others’ expansion, creating concentration risks for lenders and shareholders.
Debt is playing an increasingly large role in the financing of data centers. While debt is a quotidian aspect of project finance, and while it seems like hyperscaler tech companies can self-finance their growth through equity and cash, the lack of transparency in some recent debt-financed transactions and the interlocked liability structure of the sector are cause for concern.
If there is a sudden stop in new lending to data centers, Ponzi finance units ‘with cash flow shortfalls will be forced to try to make position by selling out position’—in other words to force a fire sale—which is ‘likely to lead to a collapse of asset values.’
The fact that the data center boom is threatened by, at its core, a lack of consumer demand and
the resulting unstable investment pathways, is itself an ironic miniature of the U.S. economy as a
whole. Just as stable investment demand is the linchpin of sectoral planning, stable aggregate
demand is the keystone in national economic planning. Without it, capital investment crumbles.
References:
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/big-techs-soaring-profits-have-an-ugly-underside-openais-losses-fe7e3184
https://www.ft.com/content/fce77ba4-6231-4920-9e99-693a6c38e7d5
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/three-ai-megadeals-are-breaking-new-ground-on-wall-street-896e0023
Can the debt fueling the new wave of AI infrastructure buildouts ever be repaid?
AI Data Center Boom Carries Huge Default and Demand Risks
Big tech spending on AI data centers and infrastructure vs the fiber optic buildout during the dot-com boom (& bust)
AI spending boom accelerates: Big tech to invest an aggregate of $400 billion in 2025; much more in 2026!
Gartner: AI spending >$2 trillion in 2026 driven by hyperscalers data center investments
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos at Italian Tech Week: “AI is a kind of industrial bubble”
FT: Scale of AI private company valuations dwarfs dot-com boom
NTT’s IOWN provides ultra low latency and energy efficiency in Japan and Hong Kong
The rapid uptake of generative AI in data centers and semiconductor factories is causing a surge in power consumption, which is predicted to reach 11 times the current level by 2033. To address this issue, the NTT Group has proposed the “IOWN (Innovative Optical and Wireless Network)” concept, which aims to improve energy efficiency and achieve ultra-low latency and high-capacity communications through innovative optical communications technology.
By utilizing optical communications technology, IOWN aims to achieve dramatically low-power, high-quality, high-capacity, and low-latency communications by migrating from conventional electronics-based networks to photonics (optical)-based networks.
“Our research and development efforts are focused on achieving 1/200th the current level of latency, 125x the current level of capacity, and 100x the current level of power efficiency by 2032,” said NTT’s Tetsushi Shoji.
NTT Group is working toward “IOWN 1.0,” a goal that will see the network become all-optical. Even with current networks using optical fiber, data is repeatedly converted into electrical signals through routers and switches. However, if communication from terminal to terminal were to be entirely optical, the power consumption required for conversion would be significantly reduced.
Furthermore, communication latency is expected to be reduced. “Traditional communications involve delays because data passes through multiple nodes. However, with the IOWN APN (All Photonics Network), data reaches its destination directly, dramatically improving communication latency,” says Shoji.
On August 29, 2024, a 2,893-km IOWN APN demonstration experiment connecting Tokyo and Taiwan. The optical transport connection linked the Chunghwa Telecom Headquarter in Taipei City with the Musashino R&D Center in Musashino, Japan, achieving an ultra-low latency of approximately 17 milliseconds over an approximately 3,000 km network. Latency fluctuations were also extremely small, The innovative application was showcased publicly at the NTT R&D Forum 2024 in November 2024.
NTT Group is also considering optical fiber inside computers as part of its IOWN 2.0 and beyond concept.
Currently, the wiring inside computers uses electrical signals, and as processing speeds increase, problems with power consumption and heat generation become more serious. To solve this, the goal is to opticalize communication between boards and chips, dramatically improving data transfer efficiency.
“Ultimately, by utilizing optical fiber even inside computers, we believe it will be possible to improve power efficiency by 100 times and communication speeds by 125 times,” says Shoji.
Source: NTT Group
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Nearly two weeks ago, NTT Docomo Business and NTT Com Asia launched the APN InterLink service, which is targeted at Hong Kong’s financial services sector. This all optical/photonic network, promised in the late 1990s, eliminates Optical to Electrical to Optical (OEO) repeaters, thereby greatly improving transmission performance.
“As an all-photonic solution, data is transmitted entirely at the speed of light with minimal conversion, resulting in significantly reduced latency and jitter. This capability enables mission-critical applications such as real-time trading and advanced AI workloads,” said Steven So, chief technology officer at NTT Com Asia.
So noted that recent performance tests have shown that an all-photonic network substantially improves upon a traditional setup.
In Japan, NTT Data and NTT West collaborated with MUFG Bank to conduct a successful test of APN during a live IT migration involving multiple data centers situated 50km to 100km apart. The demonstration included long-distance, synchronous database management system replication between locations up to 2,500km apart. The results showed less than one second of downtime.
“This highlights how APN addresses next-generation infrastructure requirements of the financial services sector,” So said. ” IOWN APN can deliver ultra-low latency, high-capacity, and energy-efficient network photonics-based connectivity to address their needs – where every millisecond counts in the digital world.”
References:
https://www.ntt.com/business/services/xmanaged/lp/itsmf/202511-nttcom.html
https://group.ntt/en/group/iown/function/
NTT pins growth on IOWN (Innovative Optical and Wireless Network)
Sony and NTT (with IOWN) collaborate on remote broadcast production platform
RAN silicon rethink – from purpose built products & ASICs to general purpose processors or GPUs for vRAN & AI RAN
The global RAN market has been declining for several years, putting pressure on network equipment vendors to cut costs and rethink their commitment to purpose built/custom RAN silicon products or ASICs. In 2022, the market for RAN equipment and software generated about $45 billion in revenues, according to research by Omdia, an Informa company. By 2024, annual revenue had tumbled to $35 billion – a 22.22% drop (and even worse in real dollars when you include inflation). As a result. it has become harder to justify the cost of expensive purpose-built silicon for the shriveling RAN market sector.
The Radio Access Network (RAN) is the segment of the mobile network interfacing the end-users and the mobile core network. In it’s IMT 2020 and IMT 2030 recommendations, ITU-R refers to the interface between a wireless endpoint and RAN equipment (base station or small cell) as the Radio Interface Technology or RIT). The core network specifications all come from 3GPP which has ETSI rubber stamp them.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Ericsson and Samsung appear increasingly reliant on Intel for RAN silicon, while Nokia has been dependent on Marvell, but is planning to use NVIDIA GPUs in the near future (much more below). Let’s look at RAN silicon offerings from Intel, Marvell and NVIDIA:
-
Key RAN silicon offerings from Intel include:
- Intel Xeon with Intel vRAN Boost: The primary processors for network and edge applications include specific Intel Xeon 6 SoCs (System-on-Chips) that integrate Intel’s vRAN Boost accelerators directly on the die. This integration helps offload demanding Layer 1 (physical layer) processing, such as forward error correction, from the general-purpose CPU cores.
- Integrated Accelerators: These built-in accelerators are designed to improve performance-per-watt and increase capacity for RAN workloads. Intel’s approach is to provide high performance using common, off-the-shelf hardware with specialized acceleration, contrasting with other approaches that might rely entirely on general-purpose CPUs.
- FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays): Through its acquisition of Altera, Intel offers FPGAs which can also be used in some RAN applications, allowing for flexible, programmable hardware solutions.
- Intel has a significant market share in 5G base station silicon and its upcoming Granite Rapids processors (part of the Xeon 6 family) are being developed to maintain its strong position in this market, including for Massive MIMO applications. The company faces strong competition, but its next-generation processors aim to improve performance and efficiency for both core and edge computing in 5G networks. massive MIMO into future chips, such as the upcoming Granite Rapids generation.
- OCTEON Fusion Processors: These are baseband processors optimized for cost, power, and programmability, widely used in both traditional and Open RAN (O-RAN) architectures. The latest iteration, the OCTEON 10 Fusion processor, provides comprehensive in-line 5G Layer 1 acceleration, enabling RAN virtualization in cloud data centers.
- OCTEON Data Processing Units (DPUs): The OCTEON TX2 and OCTEON 10 families are multi-core ARM-based processors that handle 5G transport processing, security, and edge inferencing for the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC). They incorporate hardware accelerators for AI/ML functions, enabling optimized edge processing.
- AtlasOne Chipset: This is a 50Gbps PAM4 DSP (Digital Signal Processor) and TIA (Transimpedance Amplifier) chipset solution for 5G fronthaul, optimized for high performance and power efficiency in integrated, O-RAN, and vRAN architectures.
- Ethernet Switches and PHYs: Marvell’s Prestera switches and Alaska Ethernet physical layer (PHY) devices are used in carrier infrastructure to provide the necessary networking connectivity for 5G base stations and data centers.
- Marvell also works with partners to integrate its technology into accelerator cards, such as the Dell Open RAN Accelerator Card powered by the OCTEON Fusion platform, to provide carrier-grade vRAN solutions. Furthermore, Marvell offers custom ASIC design services for hyper-scalers and telecom customers who need highly optimized, specific silicon solutions for their unique 5G and AI infrastructure requirements.
3. NVIDIA’s new silicon platform for AI Radio Access Networks (AI-RAN) is the NVIDIA Aerial RAN Computer, which is built on the next-generation Blackwell architecture. The primary system for AI-RAN deployment is the NVIDIA Aerial RAN Computer-1, which utilizes the NVIDIA GB200 NVL2 platform.
Key NVIDIA RAN components and features include:
- NVIDIA Blackwell GPU: The core graphics processor that features 208 billion transistors and provides significant performance improvements for AI and data processing workloads compared to previous generations.
- NVIDIA Grace CPU: The GB200 NVL2 platform combines two Blackwell GPUs with two NVIDIA Grace CPUs, connected by a high-speed NVLink-C2C (Chip-to-Chip) interconnect to form a powerful, unified superchip.
- NVIDIA Aerial Software: The hardware runs a full software stack that includes NVIDIA Aerial CUDA-Accelerated RAN libraries and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software for 5G and future 6G networks.
- Specialized Networking: The platform uses NVIDIA BlueField-3 Data Processing Units (DPUs) for real-time data transmission and precision timing, and NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet for high-speed networking, which are critical for RAN performance.
- The goal of this platform is to enable wireless telcos to run both traditional RAN and AI workloads concurrently on a common, energy-efficient, software-defined infrastructure, thereby creating new revenue opportunities and preparing for 6G.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
To many stakeholders, piggybacking on the general purpose processors used in PCs and data centers might be more sensible, but that would require Virtual RAN (vRAN), which replaces custom silicon with such general-purpose processors. However, it is a very small share of the RAN compute or baseband subsector. Omdia says it was just 10% in 2023, but the market research firm expects that share to more than double by 2028. It that forecast pans out, vRAN could conceivably replace some of the custom RAN silicon business with general purpose processors.
Lat year, Ericsson allocated approximately $5.7 billion of its R & D budget to design and development of ASICs for Layer 1 (PHY), the most demanding part of the baseband. It relies on Intel for other RAN silicon functionality. If virtual RAN claims a bigger share of a low- or no-growth market, Ericsson’s returns on the same level of investment in ASICs would decline because they wouldn’t be needed for vRAN. Also, Intel’s Granite Rapids could markedly narrow the performance and cost gap with purpose-built RAN chips.
“We are doing trials on many platforms,” said Per Narvinger, the head of Ericsson’s mobile networks business group, in reference to that taste testing of different chips. “But the more important thing is that we have actually created this disaggregation of and separation of hardware and software.”
The aim is to have a set of RAN software deployable on multiple hardware platforms. However, that is not achievable with ASICs, which create a tight union between hardware and software (they are inextricably tied together). The general-purpose options identified by Narvinger were AMD, Intel and Nvidia. Currently, Intel remains Ericsson’s sole silicon commercial vendor. Despite Ericsson’s professed enthusiasm for )single vendor) open RAN, its business today is nearly all about purpose-built 5G.
In sharp contrast, Samsung’s retreat from custom RAN silicon has appeared rapid. It is without doubt the biggest mainstream vendor of virtual RAN products, and there is barely interest in the purpose-built 5G technology it has developed with Marvell. The RAN that Samsung has built for Verizon in the US is entirely virtual. It is about to do the same in parts of Europe for Vodafone. Canada’s Telus purchases both virtual and purpose-built 5G products from Samsung. But Bernard Bureau, the operator’s vice president of wireless strategy, says the virtual now outperforms the traditional and is also significantly less expensive. The processors, as in the case of Ericsson, come exclusively from Intel.
- Ericsson’s primary concern likely centers on the hardware architecture utilized for Forward Error Correction (FEC), a resource-intensive Layer 1 function. While Intel’s Granite Rapids and preceding platforms integrate the FEC accelerator directly within the main processor, AMD provides this functionality via an external accelerator card. Ericsson has historically favored integrated solutions, citing the use of separate cards as an added expense.
- Samsung is evaluating virtualized RAN software that potentially obviates the need for a dedicated hardware accelerator when deployed on AMD’s high-core-count processors. Samsung is confident that the increased core density of AMD’s offerings can manage the computational load of a software-only FEC implementation, and a commercial offering may be imminent. Samsung’s transition to AMD processors from Intel would require minimal changes to existing software written for Intel’s x86 instruction set architecture.
Nokia’s situation is more complicated due to NVIDIA’s recent $1 billion investment in the company. An apparent condition is that Nokia will designing 5G and 6G network equipment that uses Nvidia’s GPUs. As we noted in yesterday’s IEEE Techblog post, many telcos regard those GPUs as an expensive and energy-hungry component, which makes using them a risky move by Nokia. Presumably, Nokia cannot use the money it has received from NVIDIA to develop 5G Advanced and 6G software specifically for Marvell’s special purpose RAN silicon. If Nokia develops RAN software that runs on NVIDIA GPUs it conceivably could be repurposed for another GPU platform rather than specialized RAN silicon or an ASIC. And the only viable GPU alternative to NVIDIA at this time (outside of China) is AMD.
References:
https://www.lightreading.com/5g/slow-death-of-custom-ran-silicon-opens-doors-for-amd
Omdia on resurgence of Huawei: #1 RAN vendor in 3 out of 5 regions; RAN market has bottomed
China gaining on U.S. in AI technology arms race- silicon, models and research
Intel FlexRAN™ gets boost from AT&T; faces competition from Marvel, Qualcomm, and EdgeQ for Open RAN silicon
Analysis: Nokia and Marvell partnership to develop 5G RAN silicon technology + other Nokia moves
