How Mobile Phone Networks Embrace AI

Our mobile phones are much smarter, but what about the telecommunications networks they run on?

Called Apple Intelligence, it’s also set to be incorporated into the Siri chatbot on phones and aims to make them easier and faster to use. And turn Siri into an even bigger personal assistant.

It’s followed by Samsung Galaxy AI and Google Gemini AI for its own Pixel phones.

This increased use of artificial intelligence means that phones will do a lot more computing, and that means they will produce and use a lot more data. This will put more pressure on mobile phone networks such as the UK’s O2, EE, Vodafone and Three.

To help them cope, telcos like these are also increasingly deploying AI, says Ian Fogg, director of network innovation at research consultancy CCS Insight.

“Network operators use artificial intelligence to dynamically manage radio frequencies to provide optimal service levels. And, for example, to manage mobile towers so that they use less energy during times of lower demand.”

Such increased use of AI to take care of mobile phone networks is now very global. In South Korea, Korea Telecom is now able to locate and fix faults within a minute thanks to artificial intelligence network monitoring, says Alex Sinclair, chief technology officer of GSMA, the body representing global mobile operators.

Meanwhile, AT&T in the US uses predictive AI algorithms trained on trillions of previous network alerts to warn them when something goes wrong.

Other operators, such as Vodafone, use AI digital twins – virtual digital replicas of real-world equipment such as masts and antennas – to constantly monitor the performance of their networks.

And artificial intelligence is also being used to manage how increasingly massive data centers use energy to keep their servers cool and optimize storage capacity.

The data explosion created by the increased use of artificial intelligence is another reason why telcos around the world continue to invest in so-called standalone 5G mobile networks. These use new, dedicated 5G infrastructure, rather than relying in part on upgrading an older, less efficient 4G system.

5G Standalone offers much higher speeds and capacity. However, some experts believe that even this higher-spec technology will not be enough to cope with the demands of the AI ​​era.

For example, at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, ​​some experts argued that artificial intelligence will not be able to reach its full potential until 6G is introduced in 2028.

While mobile customers tend to only notice the network when something goes wrong, they are much more aware when customer service levels are poor, with all the reputational damage this can cause to brands.

So the industry is also hoping that AI can radically improve the way they interact with and serve customers.

For example, the Global Telco AI Alliance – a joint venture of Deutsche Telekom, e&, Singtel, Softbank and SK Telecom with 1.3 billion customers in 50 countries – aims to develop an AI chatbot specifically tailored for the telecom sector. the type of questions customers usually ask.

Alliance’s founders hope that this specially trained chatbot will be able to handle most basic questions from customers, leaving call center employees free to focus on more complex cases.

Meanwhile, Vodafone has teamed up with Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service to improve its customer service, led by digital assistant Tobi, which interacts with more than 40 million customers a month in 13 countries and 15 languages.

The more Tobi can answer customer questions without the need for human intervention, the fewer complaints there are likely to be, which is good for the company’s profits and reputation.

“We see AI first and foremost as a ‘virtual assistant’ for people,” says Scott Petty, Vodafone’s chief technology officer. “We are already seeing AI free up time for Vodafone employees from tedious, repetitive manual work and allow them to focus on more creative activities that benefit our customers and the environment.”

AI also leaves customer agents freer to work on more complex cases, he says. Vodafone also says Azure OpenAI is helping customers more easily find what they’re looking for on its sites, with early evidence showing a doubling of successfully completed online customer journeys and a 10% reduction in follow-up calls.

While many commentators fear that AI could lead to massive job losses in the telecoms sector as menial tasks continue to be automated by software, the GSMA’s Mr Sinclair believes it could actually be empowering, particularly for lower-income countries.

“AI will give emerging markets a special tool to help them catch up,” he says. “We’re in favor of trying to democratize AI so that it’s not just the rich that can use it.”

He believes that some of the doom-mongering around AI has been exaggerated, so he takes a more optimistic tone.

It’s a view shared by CCS Insight’s Ian Fogg: “AI has been around for several years and is used for specific [telecoms] cases. But now it’s used in many other areas – networks, devices, software – so every tool we use now has the potential to be much, much better.

“AI has the potential to make networks greener and the world more efficient.”