TM Forum
TM Forum’s DTW Ignite 2026: Open Digital Architecture (ODA); Nokia, Ericsson, IBM and Mavenir AI announcements/cloud partnerships
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- Shift to Action: TM Forum Vice President Aaron Boasman-Patel and CEO Nik Willetts opened the summit emphasizing that the industry must move past abstract C-suite visions.
- The AI Economy: The flagship keynote officially launched the “Race to 2030,” a direct directive tasking operators to secure their market relevance by deploying high-velocity, production-grade architectures.
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- On-Stage AI Co-Hosts: In an industry event first, agentic AI systems took the stage alongside human moderators to act as live panel co-hosts, digital analysts, and experts.
- Summit Intelligence Layer: Advanced AI systems recorded and indexed every keynote, panel, and breakout session, functioning as a real-time intelligence layer to deliver daily trend summaries to attendees.
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- Autonomous Networks (AN): Featuring the largest showcase of live autonomous operating systems to date. Major case studies from carriers like China Mobile, China Telecom, TDC NET, and Telefónica showcased functional solutions for self-optimizing networks, RAN energy efficiency, and fast fault resolution.
- Trustworthy AI and Data: Discussions zeroed in on scaling responsible AI, exploring Models-as-a-Service (MODaaS) frameworks, managing tokenomics, and reinforcing cyber resilience.
- Composable IT and Ecosystems: Demonstrations focused on scaling Open Digital Architecture (ODA) from boardroom design into functional, interoperable engineering realities.
Practical Engineering & Showcases:
- Catalyst Showcases: The exhibition floor hosted over 60 collaborative proof-of-concept Catalyst projects and Innovation Engine live demonstrations.
- New Interactive Hubs: The event debuted dedicated “Mission Garages” for hands-on engineering collaboration, along with a specialized Future Skills program to help tech teams adapt to AI-native workflows. [1]
- Major Tech Partnerships: Industry titans—including IBM, Ericsson, Cisco, and Nokia—used the floor to debut subsea infrastructures, physical AI, and cloud-native automation frameworks.
Note 1. DTW Ignite 2026 is TM Forum’s flagship global connectivity event focused on accelerating AI-native telcos, autonomous networks, and composable IT. The event is from June 23 to June 25 at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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At the show, the TM Forum and its member alliance of over 850 companies across 180 countries, announced a major structural evolution for the Open Digital Architecture (ODA), shifting it from a cloud-native IT modernization blueprint into an AI-native execution environment. The core focus of these updates is to establish standardized, executable reference frameworks that allow operators to move beyond fragmented AI pilots and build an autonomous enterprise. The primary ODA updates and structural expansions announced at the summit include:
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- Governed Execution Layer: TM Forum members launched AI-native extensions to the ODA specification, adding a governed execution layer. This allows autonomous AI agents and large language models to run natively within the existing ODA component architecture and Open APIs.
- Project Foundation & AI Canvas: Through the Demo ONE Catalyst project, tech leaders debuted an updated AI-Native ODA Canvas. This cloud-native runtime environment orchestrates data, AI models, and autonomous agents across fragmented BSS, OSS, and network domains to replace rigid legacy systems.
- Model-as-a-Service (MODaaS): To solve the challenge of rising token costs and fragmented model selection, an ODA-aligned MODaaS framework was introduced. It establishes a unified control plane to govern, secure, and manage AI model usage across the carrier architecture.
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- Space-Telco Interoperability: In a major scope expansion, TM Forum officially launched the ODA for Satellite project. Supported by 16 foundational partners—including Airbus, Terrestar, and Vodacom—the initiative targets multi-billion dollar direct-to-device and space-connectivity markets.
- Unified Non-Terrestrial Frameworks: The project extends standard ODA components to satellite technology providers, standardizing how terrestrial mobile networks and non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) handle cross-industry billing, service delivery, and zero-touch roaming integrations.
- Plug-and-Play Validation: TM Forum rolled out its newly expanded ODA Component Certification. This toolkit gives vendors a programmatic way to verify that their commercial software components are truly plug-and-play ready, lowering custom integration costs for telecom buyers.
- “Running on ODA” Milestones: The alliance celebrated that 18 global Communication Service Providers (CSPs), representing over two billion subscribers globally, have officially achieved “Running on ODA” accreditation—confirming that modular, componentized architecture has reached full scale in production environments.
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Vendor Announcements:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) Expansion: Nokia and AWS expanded their partnership to run Nokia’s Autonomous Networks Fabric natively on AWS. The integration brings operators closer to Level 4 network autonomy, enabling networks to orchestrate, analyze, and heal themselves at machine speed.
- Google Cloud Integration: Nokia deepened its alliance with Google Cloud to integrate Gemini models into the Nokia Assurance Center. They unveiled six specialized generative AI agents (including a Router Agent and Event Triage Agent) to automatically process data and isolate the root causes of service faults. It launches as a SaaS offering in September 2026.
- Databricks Proof of Concept: Nokia and Databricks announced the completion of a joint project showing a unified, cloud-agnostic data platform. This resolves a legacy pain point by unifying hundreds of fragmented operational silo data architectures so multi-agent AI can run seamlessly across networks.
- GenAI-Native Operations: Instead of relying on traditional rules-based code, Nokia’s new interfaces allow field engineers to query complex multi-vendor topologies, generate diagnostic code, and run natural-language root-cause analyses on real-time traffic faults.
- Autonomous Network Scaling: Nokia presented multi-party Catalyst project solutions targeting network optimization, zero-touch slicing, and automated enterprise edge deployments tailored for the 5G-Advanced landscape.
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- EIAP Core Expansion: The headline announcement from the Ericsson Cloud Software and Services division was the expansion of the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP). Formerly restricted to RAN operations, the platform now fully integrates and unifies Radio Access Network (RAN) and core network automation systems.
- Introduction of cApps: Ericsson claimed a major industry first by rolling out core-specific automation applications (cApps). These decentralized apps allow operators to run automated routines directly on core architectures, streamlining cross-domain workflows to cut operations costs.
- Business Value Pathways: Ericsson debuted a structured strategic blueprint designed to guide Communication Service Providers (CSPs) through the financial steps of scaling from Level 3 to Level 4 autonomous networks.
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- Addressing the “AI Trust Gap”: Responding to a TM Forum study revealing that only 14% of operators can prove their AI systems are fully reliable, IBM presented framework tools at DTW Ignite to address security and model bias.
- B2B2X Monetization: IBM focused its platform showcase on orchestrating automated workflows for multi-enterprise B2B2X networks, enabling secure data federation across third-party hyperscalers and edge servers.
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- Telco-First Cloud Architecture: Stationed at Booth 334, Mavenir debuted its updated AI-by-design, cloud-native software portfolios built natively around TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) frameworks.
- Closed-Loop Automation: Mavenir demonstrated actionable frameworks that handle real-time resource adjustments, shifting power and processing capacity across base stations based on AI-predicted user demand cycles.
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References:
https://www.tmforum.org/events/dtw/experience-dtw/new-for-2026
Inside TM Forum’s Catalyst project “Living Networks – Phase III”
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Inside TM Forum’s Catalyst project “Living Networks – Phase III”
TM Forum’s [1.] Catalyst project “Living Networks – Phase III” brings together a broad ecosystem of communications service providers and technology innovators to advance autonomous, resilient, and energy-efficient network operations. It will be showcased at DTW Ignite 2026, taking place June 23–25 in Copenhagen.
Note 1. TM Forum is a global alliance of 800+ organizations across the connectivity ecosystem. Members include the top 10 Communication Service Providers, top three hyperscalers, leading Network Equipment Providers, and a wide range of vendors, consultancies, and system integrators.
Image Credit: TM Forum
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“Living Networks – Phase III” builds on earlier Catalyst work focused on intent-based automation and traffic resilience. According to TM Forum and project materials, Phase III advances that foundation toward governed, adaptive intelligence. It introduces a cloud-native, Kubernetes-based architecture with stronger data governance to help networks predict failures, optimize resources, and support programmable, platform-based business models such as Connectivity-as-a-Service.
The project is designed to help operators improve resilience, reduce operational effort, and lower energy consumption. It also enables them to scale autonomous operations safely across increasingly complex multi-domain environments.
Digital Global Systems (DGS), a company using AI/ML to optimize radio frequencies to monitor radio spectrum, is collaborating with a distinguished group of global Catalyst participants, including Beyond Now, Chunghwa Telecom, Globetom, Infosim, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, MTN Nigeria, MTN South Africa, NTT Group, Orange, Telekomunikasi Indonesia International, Seacom, and Telecom Italia. TM Forum identifies several of these operators as project champions, underscoring the depth of CSP engagement behind the initiative.
The Catalyst project aligns closely with the DGS’s mission to bring AI-powered intelligence to complex communications environments. DGS develops real-time RF Awareness and spectrum optimization technologies that help operators detect issues early, improve reliability, and make communications infrastructure more resilient and efficient.
“Telecom networks are becoming too dynamic and too essential to be managed with yesterday’s operating models,” said Armando Montalvo, CTO of Digital Global Systems. “By participating in Living Networks – Phase III with leading CSPs and technology innovators from around the world, DGS is helping advance a future in which networks become more autonomous, more resilient, and more responsive to both operational demands and business opportunities. This kind of collaboration is exactly what the industry needs to move from automation experiments to real, scalable transformation.”
“Living Networks – Phase III demonstrates what becomes possible when CSPs, research institutions, and specialized technology providers work together around a common vision for autonomous networks,” said Dr. David Hock, Director of Research at Infosim. “The collaboration within this Catalyst is especially powerful because it connects innovation with practical operational outcomes, helping the industry move toward more trusted, scalable, and intelligent network automation.”
The Catalyst focuses on a set of pressing industry challenges, including rising service demands, sustainability pressures, operational complexity, and the business impact of network outages. By combining AI, digital twins, multi-domain orchestration, and stronger governance over data and automation workflows, the team aims to show how operators can reduce mean time to repair and improve SLA performance. It also highlights how operators can create new monetization opportunities across partner ecosystems.
DGS said the project is another example of how collaboration across the telecom ecosystem can accelerate innovation beyond what any one company can achieve alone. At DTW Ignite in Copenhagen this June, the team will demonstrate how communications networks can evolve from static infrastructure into adaptive, intelligent platforms. These platforms will support the next generation of digital services.
About Digital Global Systems (DGS):
Digital Global Systems (DGS) delivers AI-driven RF awareness and spectrum optimization solutions that power resilient communications for governments, industries, and communities worldwide. With more than 725 issued and pending patents, DGS helps nations and enterprises rebuild stronger, smarter, and more connected.
References:
Deloitte and TM Forum : How AI could revitalize the ailing telecom industry?
GSMA, ETSI, IEEE, ITU & TM Forum: AI Telco Troubleshooting Challenge + TelecomGPT: a dedicated LLM for telecom applications
Broadband Forum new work areas to enable broadband services & apps
Verizon’s 6G Innovation Forum joins a crowded list of 6G efforts that may conflict with 3GPP and ITU-R IMT-2030 work
TM Forum Survey: Communications Service Providers Struggle with Business Case for NFV & Digital Transformation
