Autonomy reshapes telco strategy beyond operational gains
Mobile Europe's Telco to techco virtual conference brought together senior executives to examine how automation is fundamentally altering the way telecommunications companies operate and conduct business. The panel featured Edi Fernando Vieira Filho, Head of Network and System Operations at Telefonica, and Eka Kamushadze, EVP Major Programs of Transformation at Orange Business, with moderation from Chris Barnard, VP European Infrastructure and Telecommunications at IDC.
Barnard highlighted several encouraging developments in the sector. Telco revenues are expanding across both enterprise and consumer segments, in fixed and mobile services alike, growing at approximately 3.1% annually—a marked improvement from trends observed five or ten years prior. The global telecommunications market represents roughly $1.4 trillion in annual revenue, underscoring its continued significance.
Simultaneously, capital expenditure patterns are shifting. The industry currently allocates about $330 billion annually to capex spending, with IDC projecting a modest decline to around $309 billion by 2028. More significantly, capex intensity—the capital investment required to generate particular business outcomes—is expected to fall from approximately 22% to 18% over the same period. This trajectory demonstrates that telecommunications operators are achieving greater results while constraining spending.
Network autonomy has emerged as a priority concern for many telcos, despite the initial capital requirements involved. Vieira Filho acknowledged that while Telefonica has pursued automation initiatives for decades, emerging technologies now enable the company to transition from automating reactive responses to building genuinely proactive and predictive network capabilities.
Vieira Filho elaborated on the strategic implications: "We are starting to operate the same network or a higher network [that has] more complexity, with less people and the people we have are moving through a most valued activities regarding the the Capex intensity. I think this is a good example." He further noted that artificial intelligence is deepening understanding of how operational decisions affect customer satisfaction, allowing Telefonica to direct capital investments toward interventions with the greatest customer impact.
Kamushadze described her mandate at Orange Business as orchestrating comprehensive organizational change. "To design holistic transformation, to design and to lead [its] holistic transformation… [to] bring on the comprehensive transformation of business model commercial model operating model," she explained, referencing an initiative launched in 2023 called Lead the Future. The program aims to consolidate the product portfolio across Orange and Orange Business while fundamentally reconceiving service delivery to customers through innovation-driven differentiation.
Orange's transformation strategy concentrates on three foundational pillars. "We capitalised on our strengths. We focus what we call our 3 Cs connectivity, cyber security and cloud. We're transforming these components through model powered by a GenAI-powered platform." The company has introduced its evolution platform, which comprises an infrastructure foundation with integrated cybersecurity capabilities, all deployed within a cloud architecture.
Progress on this platform has accelerated considerably. Kamushadze reported that "We are moving very fast in this dimension. We have many customers already on boarded in this platform, and we have quite impressive pipeline built because it's quite popular and interesting for our customers."
The broader discussion encompassed converting technological advancement into revenue generation, integrating network operations with commercial strategy at Telefonica, designing end-to-end automated customer experiences across Orange's infrastructure, and determining investment priorities based on business objectives rather than technical considerations alone.
