- Eleven carriers are already implementing L4 automation on live networks
- None of them are in the U.S.
- All except one are using solutions from Huawei - What's the connection?
In a move that defies market expectations and upends analyst forecasts, at least 11 carriers have already deployed Level 4 (L4) autonomous networking on live networks.
They are AIS (Thailand), China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, MTN (South Africa), Orange (France), Telekomsel (Indonesia), TDC NET (Denmark), Vivo (Brazil), 4iG (Hungary) and Telefónica (Spain).
None of these operators has yet implemented L4 autonomy across their entire infrastructure (although China Mobile is the closest to achieving that state of network nirvana). However, all of them are using L4 in pilots and trials in live production environments that handle essential customer data — not on whiteboards, or in DMZs or sciencey labs.
And all of them – bar one – are using Huawei’s Xinghe AI-based autonomous networking solution.
The exception is TDC NET in Denmark, which is using AI-enabled autonomous networking technology from Ericsson to optimize energy usage in its radio access network (RAN) network. TDC is also the only carrier to be certified as meeting L4 autonomy under the new Autonomous Network Level Assessment (ANLAV) scheme from the TM Forum, which has been instrumental in defining, driving and validating autonomous networking.
L4 autonomous networks will play a vital role in enabling carriers to reinvent themselves in a new and more competitive form that prioritizes new services over selling bandwidth. Its ability to optimize networks, predict and prevent issues, and self-heal — all with minimal human intervention — offers operators a way to reduce costs while also addressing one of their most significant flaws: the glacial pace at which they currently make moves, adds and changes to their networks and services.
Typically, carriers that achieve these kinds of breakthroughs by deploying L4 would advertise their successes through extensive media and PR campaigns. However, in this instance, the opposite is occurring. Apart from a few low-energy press releases and some content buried on the TM Forum website, operators are keeping their autonomous activities under wraps. Why? The reason is political, not technological, as national operators look to avoid drawing the wrath and economic might of the United States down on their governments for working with Huawei.
Instead, carriers have been surreptitiously charging ahead to roll out Huawei’s L4 capabilities, either ignoring or finding workarounds for restrictions on using the technology. For instance, UK-based Vodafone Group worked with Huawei to launch L4 in Hungary, which doesn’t care what Trump thinks, but not in the U.K., which does. (It then sold its Hungarian ops to 4iG and the Hungarian government).
The result? L4 networks are going live in Asia, Africa, Europe and South America. But not in the U.S. And, yes, this is yet another illustration of how the U.S. administration’s desperate efforts to stymie Huawei’s progress — under false presences, such as the absurd “back door” conspiracy, which falsely claims Huawei embeds surveillance capabilities to aid China in spying on Western countries—have spectacularly backfired.
America first issued a tech fatwa against Huawei in 2018, during President Trump’s first term. In addition to prohibiting the import of Huawei gear for use on national networks (and encouraging suck-ups like the UK to do the same) in 2019, the US banned the export of 5G chips to China.
“The key to victory is surprise," as Mao used to say, and Huawei responded by developing its own 5G chips, thereby conceiving a new line of business for itself while also depriving U.S. silicon manufacturers of one of their largest customers.
A couple of years later, Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei made another surprise move, deciding to license its vast patent portfolio — including both 5G and autonomous networking — for the first time, ensuring the almost ubiquitous deployment of Chinese telecom technology worldwide.
This is a challenging time to run a carrier network, but the global availability of operational L4 autonomous networking solutions from Huawei, Ericsson and others also presents incredible opportunities. Unless, that is, you are based in the United States or the U.K. By creating an uncompetitive environment based on falsehoods about Chinese telecom products, these countries’ governments have helped ensure that their national communication infrastructure continues to fall behind the rest of the world.
Steve Saunders is a British-born communications analyst, investor and digital media entrepreneur with a career spanning decades. Click here to subscribe to his Infradig newsletter, featuring exclusive and occasionally mildly amusing content and insights on autonomous networking, 5G, AI and digital industrialization.
Op-eds from industry experts, analysts or our editorial staff are opinion pieces that do not represent the opinions of Fierce Network.