Highlights from DTW Ignite 2023

for a “code red for our industry,” which “does not mean game over, it means a call to arms.” You could almost get a feel for TM Forum’s future business plans when Willets informed us that the “clock is ticking, it’s a three-year window, and we have to move now.” This of course was in reference to AI, which he believed was a “gift to this industry.” This subject that excites almost everybody on the planet, tech or no tech background, was one of the main talking points of British Telecom’s chief digital information officer Harmeen Metha. 

She remarked that “the next three to five years are going to see such evolutions of change and if we’re not ready for it we will be left behind.” Her combination of excitement and concern were palpable as the teachings of her two-decade-old AI and Neural Networks degree were finally coming to fruition. She shared a poignant graph that compared various internet giants’ paths to one million subscribed users. Netflix 3.5 years, Facebook 10 months, Instagram 2.5 months.

ChatGPT 5 days.

At Enabling the AI Powered Telco, the CEO of Elisa Veli-Matti Mattila shared his positive thoughts on the AI revolution. Despite Finland’s average user consuming 46GB a month (four times higher than the rest of the EU) he proudly stated, “we have zero people working in the operational network sector, everything is fully automated.” This was reiterated in Optimizing Network Agility when Ajay Jain from Airtel informed us of AI’s ability to see into the future as well. He claimed their smart NOC allows “problems to be resolved before they happen.”

Figure 2 - TM Forum CEO Nik Willetts kicks off DTW23 – Ignite

What sets DTW23 – Ignite apart from some other expos though is its Catalyst project area, which allows us actually see if all this “working together” talk from single people on brightly lit stages is actually true. Brent Curry from Oracle told me that the Catalyst project offers “true collaboration.”  

China Mobile in collaboration with Huawei and others shared their Zero carbon intelligent network, which features “ambitious decarbonization goals” to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. Better late than never, I suppose.  

Orange, alongside others such as Verizon and Infosim, showcased its Autonomous networks hyperloops - Phase IV, which aims to “develop new types of software or solutions to enhance end-user experience based on the capabilities provided by AN architecture/concept through re-usable AN prototype/stack.” This catalyst project aimed to “revolutionize solutions in the daily context of citizens, including energy, weather conditions, industry work, tourism, sports, and culture experiences.”

The event's website is already advertising its next show in the same location of Copenhagen and claims to have broken records with over 3,700 registrants—20% more than last year’s show. It’s difficult to gauge if these numbers are actual physical attendees, registered guests, and whether they include TM Forum staff as well. At first glance, it seemed to be on par with DTW23 – Ignite in Nice, during its prime. As I was doing my rounds conducting editorial briefings for Pipeline, I made sure to find out what the vendors actually thought of this year’s event. The general consensus was positive,