Chair: Emma Buckland, Principal Analyst – Telco Cloud & Networks, STL Partners

PANEL: Autonomy Roadblocks: Find ‘Em, Fix ‘Em, Free Your Network

Spot the Snags – Identify the biggest blockers slowing down autonomy and where they hide.
Break the Bottlenecks – Tackle integration, interoperability, and AI-driven decision-making head-on.
Unleash the Network – Move from stuck to seamless with actionable fixes that drive real autonomy.

Roberto Kung, SVP Technology & Operations, Sofrecom Orange
Ramon Romero, Head of Network & OSS Operations Transformation, Telefonica
Monte Hong, Worldwide Communications Industry Business Strategy Lead, Microsoft

PRESENTATION: Building Trust in Autonomous Networking

Autonomy is the stated goal of many telcos, but few have reached the point of actually removing humans from the loop. At a practical level, the details of implementing autonomy at the network level are riddled with technical and institutional barriers. In this session, we'll talk about how IBM is framing a new approach to agentic AI which uses network-specific models to build trustworthy autonomous operations. We'll talk about how this approach to autonomy can deliver value across the plan-build-manage network lifecycle.

Andrew Coward, GM, Software Defined Networking, IBM
Jared du Plessis, Cloud Engineering Manager, Vodafone

PRESENTATION: Advancing Towards Autonomous Networks Through Collaboration: Concepts, Practices and Ecological Co-creation.

ZTE’s outline of the conceptual state and architecture of the Autonomous Network
Introduction of the concept and form of Endogenous Intelligence of Network Elements and Ecological Co-creation.
China Telecom's insights on cloud-network autonomy, high-value scenarios, and the implementation plan for 2025
Success story of the China Telecom's Kunlun Ecology (cloud network capability open platform)

Qi Song, Deputy General Manager, Cloud Network Operation Department, China Telecom Group
Yanbin Dai, Director of Service and Data Intelligence (SDI) Products MKT & Solution Team, ZTE Corporation

PRESENTATION: Enabling End-to-End Autonomous Networks in Brownfield Environments: Lessons from TELUS’ Nationwide Transformation

TELUS is leading the charge toward fully autonomous networks - reimagining wireless infrastructure across Canada through virtualization, intelligent automation, and a robust multi-vendor ecosystem.

Transforming Legacy Infrastructure - Discover how TELUS is modernizing its existing network into a flexible, software-defined architecture enabling self-optimization, self-healing, and agility across diverse bands and technologies.
Automation in Practice - Gain insights into TELUS' real-world deployment of autonomous capabilities across all network domains, including RAN, core, transport, and slicing—through service orchestration, real-time analytics, and cross-domain intelligence.
Vision for 2027 and Beyond - Explore TELUS’ strategic roadmap to achieving Level 4 end-to-end network autonomy. Learn how AI-powered operations and autonomous service lifecycle management are laying the foundation for scalable, industry-wide transformation.

Ali Tizghadam, TELUS Fellow and the Chief Automation Architect, CTO Office, TELUS
Gaurang Pandya, VP and Customer Business Executive, Amdocs