UK operator Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) avoided 5,262 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions over the last decade through a network equipment-related partnership with sustainable tech specialist TXO.

Recovering and refurbishing assets for resale accounted for 4,575 tonnes of the savings reported by TXO. Switches, routers and line cards from VMO2’s fixed operation were common assets returned to the market.

The operator also sourced refurbished equipment: around 687 tonnes of CO2e saved was attributed to this activity, due to VMO2 not having to buy new.

Its TXO partnership also includes recycling, with more than 690 tonnes of the operator’s equipment at the end of its life sent to be broken down.

More than 60% of the recycled weight extracted from the waste was steel, copper and aluminium.

VMO2 head of reverse logistics Paul Franley said the operator aimed to “extend the life of our network hardware so it can be reused, given a second life or disposed of sustainably”, with its partner helping to “maintain network equipment through testing, repair and refurbishment wherever possible”.

“The results of this programme demonstrate how a more circular approach to technology can benefit both the business and the environment.”

TXO chief product and asset recovery officer David Evans urged the technology sector to “move beyond the linear model of buying, deploying and replacing”.

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Trade body the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN) outlined a need for significant moves across several areas including standards and security ahead of widespread use of agentic AI for automated networks.  

The group backs the technology as a likely key enabler for Level 4 autonomous networks as defined by the TM Forum, but highlighted work was still required in architecture, operations, governance and other supporting areas.

In a newly-released report detailing the opportunities and areas to address, the NGMN explained operators need “robust mechanisms for governance, trust, policy adherence, observability, explainability, operational safety, determinism, assurance, security and cost control”.

Real-world
Mobile operator technical teams were cautiously optimistic about the NGMN’s findings.

Orange CTO and NGMN chair Laurent Leboucher said operators are at a “decisive inflection point as the telecoms industry enters a new phase of network automation”.

“The rapid arrival of agentic AI has introduced the prospect of autonomous systems able to reason, plan, collaborate and execute actions within and across multiple operational domains”.

He noted network complexity and high customer experience demands mean “general-purpose agentic AI technologies must be used carefully”, highlighting a need for safeguards and the ability to “bring humans in the loop when needed”.

“This is a learning process in itself, where operators will have to take controlled risks.”

Fellow NGMN board member and China Mobile chief expert Guangyi Liu noted reviews from standards development organisations, industry initiatives and open-source activities showed “encouraging momentum” for agentic AI use, but “despite this, the landscape remains largely complex and unevenly mature”.

He endorsed increased collaboration across a wide range of organisations to “achieve confidence in the opportunity of large-scale deployments and provide a more unified end-to-end perspective”.

Vodafone Group head of R&D Luke Ibbetson, also on the NGMN’s board, agreed about the need for protections and trust being in place before agentic AI could be fully employed by the telecoms sector.

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Airtel Business inked a deal with Indian state-owned telecoms equipment manufacturer and supplier ITI to jointly target enterprises in regulated sectors aiming to adopt the latest digital technology.

ITI designs, manufactures and deploys a wide range of telecommunications and enterprise IT equipment for organisations in India, while Airtel’s unit offers connectivity and a variety of complementary products in the market.

By combining the partners’ respective strengths, they aim to help companies address digital transformation challenges including legacy system modernisation and meet new business demands through adoption of the latest technology.

The pair plan to provide what they define as “future-ready solutions” for enterprise connectivity, sovereign cloud and data centre services, IoT, AI and cybersecurity.

In a joint statement, they cited segments including banking and public sector organisations as likely targets for their combined offering, which is set to integrate industrial IoT asset tracking, AI analytics and cybersecurity with connectivity, cloud and data centre infrastructure.

Airtel Business CEO Sharat Sinha said the companies have a “shared ambition to create future-ready technology solutions that strengthen business continuity, unlock innovation and support India’s secure digital-first future”.

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NTT Docomo and Samsung Electronics validated AI-RAN technology which optimises user experience at an individual level to cut service issues, a feat the pair asserted is an important step towards predictive architecture expected to be prevalent in 6G.

The companies explained the technology tested in a trial earlier this year in Japan uses AI to analyse a user’s movement patterns and behaviour to predict potential service degradation before it happens.

Rather than applying the same network configuration to every device connected to a base station, the technology tested is meant to tailor each user’s experience depending on real-time network conditions and their expected actions.

The companies noted the traditional approach led to connectivity drops in areas of weak signal and other degradation issues, stating increased demand for high bandwidth services meant users increasingly required greater stability.

Validation tests for the AI-RAN optimisation technology reduced the frequency of data rate degradation from 13% to 7%.

The companies expect the technology to “usher in an era where networks autonomously recognise user contexts and service requirements, delivering optimal communication environments”, stating it is an important step towards predictive network operations.

They added this is needed as “AI-driven network optimisation becomes increasingly prevalent in the 6G network”.

JinGuk Jeong, EVP and head of the Advanced Communications Research Centre at Samsung Electronics, said “by shifting our research focus from overall cell performance to AI-driven individual user considerations, we have demonstrated the potential for enhanced perceived quality at the user level”.

The executive added through further collaboration with its partner, it would “continue securing core technologies for future communications centred around users”.

Samsung and NTT added they also developed a related data collection process to minimise the network burden during optimisation.

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