At MWC Barcelona 2025, TM Forum hosted the Autonomous Networks (AN) Summit with the theme “Advancing Autonomous Networks Level 4 Innovation and Commercialization.” Speakers from Telefonica, Orange, Telenor, Huawei, and other partners gathered to discuss and plan the development of Level 4 (L4) Autonomous Networks.
In 2024, the AN industry experienced rapid growth with the release of the L4 industry blueprint and 20 high-value scenarios. Large model technology has shown early success in telecommunications applications, and several leading operators have already reached L3.5 in some key scenarios such as fault management. With 2025 being a pivotal year for L4 commercialization, the AN Mission Board is focusing on the L4 industry blueprint, solution package development, and commercial innovation deployment, and has jointly launched the “L4 is ON” initiative.
1. Refining the L4 industry blueprint: Refining the implementation timeline with a focus on high-value L4 scenarios, and enhancing the target structure based on copilots and agents to advancing towards L4 with support from all industry partners.
2. Developing standardized L4 solution packages: Developing standardized solution packages, including the scenarios requirements, key effectiveness indicators, ANL evaluation standards, and E2E solutions, to support L4 commercialization in high-value L4 scenarios.
3. Promoting the innovation and commercialization of L4 high-value scenarios: Conducting AN-level assessment, accelerating application innovation and large-scale adoption, unlocking new value, and fostering a sustainable business cycle.
Aaron Boasman-Patel, VP Innovation at TM Forum, said: “Autonomous Networks are more than a technical evolution; they will unleash a step-change in customer experience, business velocity, profitability and new services by unlocking the power of seamless end-to-end autonomous operations. To accelerate their adoption, we’re working with our members to deliver an industry standard open architecture that will enable CSPs to reach Level 4 autonomy.”
Dang Wenshuan, Huawei’s Chief Strategy Architect, said: “AI breakthroughs will be achieved at faster pace, and AN is picking up speed. We have much work to do. One key task is to define solution packages. A solution package serves as a guide on how to implement AN Level 4 from end to end for a high-value scenario. It offers scenario descriptions, effectiveness indicators, gap assessment, a function architecture, an integration solution, and a workflow. The package enables efficient AN Level 4 implementation for each high-value scenario, and drives large-scale commercial adoption for different telcos.”
During the AN Strategy Panel Discussion, panelists from Telefonica, Orange, Telenor, and etc. addressed key topics such as commercial value, implementation pace, and essential technologies.
The guests present agreed that realizing Level-4 Autonomous Networks is challenging and requires long-time, concerted efforts across the industry. Technological innovation and real-world projects focusing on high-value scenarios are essential to create more intelligent, efficient, and sustainable network services for the era of autonomous networks.
