With populations around the globe being consigned to the task of doing very little for the past year, a scan of the recently announced finalists for the brand new FutureNet World Operator Award proves that the telecoms industry has been doing anything but!

Indeed, Liberty Global were keen to highlight that, working throughout Covid, and working remotely, over 40 engineers and architects from Liberty Global and partner Infinera engaged internationally bringing together their expertise in multiple specialities to deploy the Transcend Maestro platform, a vital step in its journey to SDN and moving its multi-vendor networks to full closed-loop automation.

Back in 2019, the inaugural year of FutureNet World, Beeline and partner P. I. Works began their project which ultimately resulted in improving and automating network planning for three major cities: Moscow, Krasnodar and Novosibirsk in 2020. Their success confirmed the possibility of improving time-to-market and, as we approach FutureNet World’s third iteration, Beeline and P. I. Works are embarking on a nationwide, full-scale automated network investment planning project.

LG U+ ended 2020 with the successful implementation of two use cases utilising Comarch’s machine learning tech in their network, which is a first in Korea and the whole region to provide next-generation services. With a notoriously demanding market, LG U+ is always seeking to provide services of the highest quality, which are now in full swing with ML systems in place and building an appropriate knowledge base.

In recent times Telefónica has been at the forefront telecoms industry cooperation. The iFUSION project, which the company created to accelerate its transport network transformation, is now being deployed successfully across their operational footprint. One reason Telefónica selected Blue Planet, a division of Ciena as a vendor partner was for their commitment to open standards. In a similar vein, Telefónica joined forces with Deutsche Telekom, MTN, Orange, Telia Company and Vodafone to use the iFUSION architecture as the basis for developing new standards to strengthen their drive for industry-wide adoption of open, SDN-controlled transport.

To enable service agility, China Unicom in tandem with Huawei, upgraded their networks towards Autonomous Networks with outstanding results. One example: improved AI throughout China Unicom has increased download speeds by 53% and decreased network delays by 35%. Truly astounding results for an operator providing 5G to well over 70 million customers.

A1 Telekom Austria Group decided to forge ahead without even a vendor supplier for company – an unusual development in keeping with these unusual times. Amongst other impressive wide-ranging results achieved, A1 now has Automated Energy Saving in place with SARA, its Network Analytics Platform. SARA predicts location traffic profiles and can switch off surplus cells, a bonus in terms of costs and the environment.

The question that now remains is, if this is what the industry is capable of during an era-defining, panicky pandemic, what can be achieved during the forecast post-pandemic boom period? Here at FutureNet World HQ, we can’t wait to find out!

The FutureNet World Awards winners are being announced at the event on 20^th and 21^st April, read more including the list of finalists in each of the four categories here, and register for the event here.

Photo by Brett Zeck on Unsplash