Tier 1 telcos around the world are selecting Totogi’s BSS Magic because it works. BSS Magic sits on top of your legacy BSS/OSS mess and creates a digital twin using telco-specific ontology. No rip-and-replace, just easy-to-use AI capability that understands your telco and starts fixing problems immediately across existing systems. It’s like having a translator that finally makes all your siloed software talk to each other. Give it a try!
BSS Magic just made CloudSense TM Forum-compliant! Certifying Cloudsense as TM Forum-compliant “the old way” would typically take the company over two years to do, but using AI and Totogi's BSS Magic (where I’m acting CEO) it was done in only a month. Our AI-powered agentic platform, built on a telco-specific ontology, automated the entire conformance process including code generation, documentation interpretation, endpoint mapping, and testing—a breakthrough that demonstrates how BSS Magic can make any vendor’s system complaint with the ODA. Interested in giving it a try? Give me a call.
Well, well, well—look who's joining the #CLOUDCITY Army! Ericsson just launched 5G software as a service (SaaS) via Google Cloud. Looks like I was right about the public cloud being the future of telco. Ericsson On-Demand is a new SaaS solution—the first for the vendor—that provides 5G core platform functionality for mobile operators. Even though it’s built on Google Cloud (strange choice; I would have selected AWS for the wider region availability), I applaud the move. Which operators are going to sign up first to give it a spin?
AI is like nothing we’ve ever seen, officially, as evidenced in BOND venture capital firm’s new 340-page report, Trends – Artificial Intelligence (AI). It’s packed with a ton of great charts that really illustrate just how HUGE AI has become, and how quickly. In short, it’s unprecedented when it comes to the speed and size of user adoption, the infrastructure investment, price-performance, job postings, and many other measures. Don’t have time for 340 pages? Here’s a nice summary from Jason Lemkin. Hold on to your hats, folks! AI is definitely taking off.
As a result of all this AI, MNOs should prepare for a “massive increase in data,” said NVIDIA’s SVP of telecom Ronnie Vasishta. Some recent reports have forecasted a slowdown in telecom network data growth, with wireless traffic growth rates declining and broadband consumption rising only 7.2% annually. But some in the industry see AI adoption reversing the trend, as generative AI moves to mobile devices and record data center investments for AI services drive more traffic to broadband networks. Great news for telcos, right?
Are telcos playing a different AI game than big tech? VEON’s Chief Digital Services Officer Lasha Tabidze says yes, arguing that telcos are uniquely positioned for local AI leadership due to their extensive customer data and role as the “cheapest digital distribution channel.” VEON’s flagship initiative is KazLLM, a fully functional Kazakh-language large language model (LLM), which powers an AI tutor that Tabidze claims significantly outperformed ChatGPT in Kazazh. The operator has plans to replicate its success across Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Ukraine while also offering LLM-as-a-service solutions for enterprise customers. As I’ve written before, I’m not sure the LLM game is the one to bet on, with prices on the large models dropping dramatically and language support relatively easy to add...
Taking a page from the Mint Mobile book, three US actors just launched SmartLess Mobile, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) on T-Mobile. Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes spun the service off from their “SmartLess” podcast, partnering with wireless industry leaders Paul and Jeni McAleese, and Thomvest Asset Management. The new service offers edgy marketing and simplified plans—from $15 to $30 per month—tailored to customers’ actual usage rather than unlimited data tiers. (Reminds me of podcast guest Peter Adderton’s approach with Boost Mobile!)
While we’re in the mood to launch celebrity MVNOs, apparently Trump filed a trademark for mobile services the same day he told FCC Chairman Carr and EchoStar Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board Ergen to “hug it out.” His filing mentions “retail stores;” is he thinking he will take over Boost Mobile from Ergen? Boost Mobile has an underutilized nationwide prepaid retail footprint; Trump would get instant distribution, while Ergen gets regulatory cover and a shot at $7.5 billion in spectrum-backed debt. This one will be interesting to watch. 👀
Are MVNOs friends or foes? Mobile network operators (MNOs) should strategically embrace MVNOs, says Thai-based consulting firm Yozzo. The telco industry has evolved, with recent analysis showing that wholesale revenue from MVNOs often outweighs any customer cannibalization because MVNOs target niche markets MNOs overlook, handle lower-revenue customers more cost-effectively, bear marketing and customer service costs, and monetize MNO’s excess network capacity that would otherwise go unused. The supporting technology has evolved, too, making it so that MVNOs don’t need MVNEs (and MVNEs’ loss will be MNOs’ gain). Want a wholesale platform to support MVNOs on your network without interfering with your retail business? Talk to Totogi about purchasing a multitenant, full BSS stack to natively support the MVNOs on your network.
At DSP Leaders World Forum a couple weeks ago, everyone on the cloud-native panel talked like cloud was a no-brainer—except they all meant private cloud, not public cloud. No wonder Red Hat, aka the #fakecloud vendor, topped TelecomTV’s survey with AWS trailing in second. At least Telefónica Germany, DISH, and Vodafone get it. A half step to the cloud won’t get you the savings you’re looking for. You have to go all the way, public cloud native to change telco economics. So go for it!
