The future telco: A live discussion

“Even though this journey looks challenging, there are examples of telecoms operators that are well advanced along the process of transformation, accommodating legacy with the new.” Keith Dyer, editor of The Mobile Network

On this week’s Zero-Touch Live (our 50th episode 🎉), Rakuten Symphony OSS president Vivek Murthy and The Mobile Network editor Keith Dyer joined us to explore next-gen operations deployment achievements uncovered in the new Future Telco Report. We got to the heart of how operators are putting AI and cloud-native operating models into practice.

📺 Watch the replay now below.

Not just managing complexity, eliminating it

Throughout the discussion, Keith and Vivek highlighted the structural shifts separating operators that are actually changing from those still in planning phases as they:

• Described how leading operators are moving beyond “future state” slides and into real structural change.
• Discussed ways operators like AT&T, Boost and Rakuten Mobile are already using cloud-native cores, horizontal OSS and AI-driven processes to simplify operations rather than manage accumulated complexity.
• Covered the challenges existing telco operating models pose due to siloed teams, stitched-together systems and decades of process debt slowing progress.
• Revealed how some operators are choosing aggressive and bold simplification, such as Vodafone’s decision to cut 400 tools and systems to eliminate complexity instead of managing it.
• Shared why platform consolidation is proving essential as dozens of legacy systems are replaced to create a shared operational baseline for humans, workflows and eventually AI agents.
• Emphasized why data quality and shared knowledge models matter more than any single AI technique, pointing out that operators progressing fastest treat unified, contextualized data as the real prerequisite for intent-driven operations and multi-agent systems.

“Progress comes when leadership is bold enough to shut down legacy systems and rally the organization around a single North Star for transformation.” Vivek Murthy, Rakuten Symphony

No longer a hypothetical

Both guests agreed that the “future telco” is no longer a hypothetical. The operators moving fastest did not achieve leadership state via isolated AI pilots. Rather, they simplified foundations, restructured how they work and are using cloud and AI as native capabilities rather than add-ons.

👉 Watch the full conversation and download The Mobile Network's report now to see where your peers are along the “future telco” journey.

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