Last but not least, Luthra said it’s about continuous reinvention, which is about being able to continue to adapt to the pace of change.
“When it comes to technology, things are changing rapidly, so it’s important to cultivate this new power so that we can continue to invent,” he explained.
AI in the network
Tejas Rao, Accenture’s managing director and global network practice lead, said many of Accenture’s communications partners are implementing AI. They are also looking to accelerate the adoption of AI within the autonomous network space.
“Given the journey network operators have been through, whether we’re talking about 5G or continuing to invest in fiber network deployments, network operators are almost done with much of their next-generation network deployment,” he said.
“But as they rapidly move their networks from just pure infrastructure functions to more cloud-native functions, we’re starting to see their ability to kind of leverage both public cloud and private cloud infrastructure.”
Rao said these providers are starting to think about how to balance workloads across cloud platform providers.
“As networks evolve and we start thinking about the evolution of that traffic, we’re seeing the capabilities of generative AI and agent AI accelerate,” he said. “In the future, we are thinking about an AI fabric that will enable AI experiences for end users, whether they are B2C or B2B customers.”
Rao explained that these providers have already spent significant time considering digital-first strategies over the past five to six years.
This includes considering how to separate back-office systems and engage customers across all channels to become truly cloud-first and cloud-native.
“Most carriers are now starting to think about what is AI first in their networks? That’s why it’s the most important thing to talk about when you think about autonomous networks and AI,” Rao explained.
Over the last year, he has been very interested in how to bring AI within network organizations.
This includes everything from planning, engineering, and deployment operations to thinking about deploying AI and machine learning models as utility agents at scale.
“Over the past 12 to 18 months, there has been an increased interest in deploying AI and expanding functional networks,” he said.
Telstra network rebuild
This is broadly in line with Telstra’s aim to reposition its network as a product, making it easier to customize and distribute services across different types of partners while supporting its core product.
Speaking at the Digital Transformation World (DTW) 2025 conference in Denmark from June 17 to 19, Telstra Group product and technology executive Kim Krog Andersen said this change was due to the complexity and demands of communications networks, making managing and monetizing them a challenge.
In his executive keynote, Andersen spoke about the need to leverage network intelligence to drive innovation and scalable business models.
“Over the past few years, we have made bold decisions to radically simplify and digitize our core business,” he said. “We removed back books, overage charges, contract lock-in and ended mobile phone subsidies.
“At the same time, we invested in our network leadership and underlying technology to maximize value for our customers.”
He said this had enabled Telstra to “improve margins and perform well relative to global peers. At the same time, we believe these fundamental industry trends provide further growth potential.”
According to Andersen, today’s telecom business models are static and overall mostly best-effort.
“Customer experience depends on many network attributes such as security, resiliency, downlinks, uplinks, and jitter. [and] “While latency is important, we still define network success primarily based on speed and coverage,” he said.
“AI agents, 8K streaming, cloud gaming, and other sophisticated use cases will make it more difficult to continue building networks that meet these demands and drive commercial returns at the same time.”
Andersen said that for the network to operate as a product, Telstra must have reusable features and attributes that can be configured and distributed through a variety of channels. This includes existing direct businesses, virtual mobile network operators, original equipment manufacturers, over-the-top services, and system integrators through aggregator platforms such as Aduna.
The platform aggregator is a venture between telco Ericsson and Telstra, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, Deutsche Telekom, KDDI, Orange, Reliance Jio, Singtel, Telefonica, T-Mobile, Verizon, Vodafone and others.
Aduna enables developers around the world to get the most out of the network through a common network application programming interface (API).
Aduna provides a standardized platform to foster collaboration and improve user experience by combining network APIs from multiple carriers around the world under a unified platform based on the CAMARA open source project led by the GSMA and Linux Foundation.
In November, Telstra announced the release of CAMARA API – Network Verification and SIM Swap. – To Aduna Global. This will allow approved businesses to embed network APIs into approved apps, allowing them to provide “faster and more secure experiences for customers.”
This is a further advancement of Telstra’s Network as a Product (NaaP) vision under its Connected Future 30 strategy, which enables partners to build solutions across sectors such as banking, fintech, government, healthcare and e-commerce.
These APIs are available through Telstra’s developer portal and were released to prevent account takeovers, protect sensitive information, and ease the burden on users.
“Every time a customer waits for a one-time password or worries about fraud, it creates friction that we can remove,” Andersen said. “Our network APIs – number verification and SIM swap – help make authentication faster and more secure, helping businesses better protect their customers from potential fraud.
“For years, networks have operated in a static manner, but now we are making them programmable and more accessible in a secure manner.”
