Uniform standards, regulatory support key to zero-touch telecom networks

Industry leaders at India Mobile Congress say autonomous networks can improve efficiency, but need common standards, regulatory support, safeguards and human oversight

Uniform standards, supportive regulatory policies, and precise intent translation will be critical to building zero-touch telecommunications (telecom) networks across India as infrastructure scales beyond human operational capacity, industry leaders said at the India Mobile Congress on Wednesday.

 

Speaking during a panel discussion on zero-touch networks, experts said autonomous networks could improve operational efficiency, fault detection, cost management, and customer experience while reducing dependence on manual intervention.

 

Addressing the sector’s central role, Udai K Srivastava, president of regulatory policy at Reliance Jio, said, “If we consider today’s network, every sector depends on telecom. It will take quite some time before we close the loop completely.”

  

Despite the benefits of autonomous networks, panellists said artificial intelligence could handle repetitive tasks, but major decisions, including regulatory actions and monetisation, should remain under human oversight.

 

“We are not talking about replacing people from an autonomous perspective. People will make high-level decisions — in terms of governance and establishing rules. Autonomy will do the heavy lifting,” said Atul Joshi, head of telecom (India and South Asia), Amazon Web Services.

 

Apart from the opportunities, panellists flagged hurdles including a trust deficit and cybersecurity risks. Anurag Agarwal, cofounder and director, DataBloc Technologies, said, “The question isn’t whether our machines will make mistakes — of course they will — but the real question is what we do after our autonomous machines make mistakes.”

 

“We need to put the right frameworks, the right guardrails around our autonomous networks as we move forward, so that not only do we limit damage when anything goes wrong, but we also have the power to roll back those changes,” he added.