The internet is so critical to daily life that 76 percent of consumers in Asia Pacific surveyed by Ipsos say they can’t imagine life without it. Behind this digital dependence are telecom networks, evolved from rotary phones to broadband, fiber, and now 5G. The next leap forward isn’t just about speed – it’s about building smarter, more agile networks driven by data. As businesses increasingly turn to AI and the cloud to elevate their services, telecom providers must balance innovation with operational realities on the ground.
World Telecommunication and Information Society Day is a timely moment to think about the future of information sharing, what the ideal telecommunications network looks like, and what it takes to get there. Innovation in base networking, virtualization, and AI has implications that go far beyond telco providers; they shape how consumers live and how businesses operate in a digitally driven world.
Why virtualization makes the foundation for the ideal network
Virtualization is at the core of building the ideal telecommunications network. With a fully virtualized infrastructure, telcos gain immediate programmatic control on the software basis of the entire network, allowing AI to enhance business operations quickly for greater efficiency. This means: real-time automation, intelligent scaling, and stronger security. Imagine a network that spins up new virtual resources the moment congestion hits or shuts down fraud attacks and attempts to compromise the network. Virtualization isn’t just an IT upgrade. It’s the gateway to more secure, adaptable, and intelligent networks.
Virtualized networks matter for consumers and businesses
Virtualized networks may sound like back-end infrastructure, but they carry real benefits for the people and industries they serve. For consumers, they enable faster, more reliable mobile experiences, especially as 5G standalone networks mature. A virtualized, software-driven network can dynamically allocate resources where demand is highest, reducing latency during peak hours and improving the quality of video streaming, online gaming, and even real-time translation apps.
On the business side, sectors like finance and healthcare stand to gain from more secure, responsive, and intelligent networks. A virtualized core allows for tighter control and faster detection of anomalies, which are crucial for fraud prevention in digital banking or maintaining uptime in remote patient monitoring. Over time, the programmability of these networks opens the door to personalized service-level agreements (SLAs), edge computing for real-time diagnostics, and AI-driven insights that empower industries to operate smarter and respond faster.
The real-world challenges slowing virtualization
While the benefits of virtualization are clear, putting it into practice is complex. Many organizations still depend on legacy infrastructure, vendor lock-in, and operational models designed for physical systems. Whether it’s a telco managing thousands of network sites or a manufacturer tied to on-premises systems, transitioning to cloud-ready environments requires more than a tech upgrade — it demands operational, contractual, and cultural change.
Startups face capital and regulatory constraints, while established players grapple with entrenched systems and long-standing agreements. In every industry, the challenge is the same: virtualization doesn’t overcome physical limitations — but you can modernize how assets are managed and scaled. This includes an organization’s most valuable asset, its data.
The path to virtualization is both operational and economic. Running in hundreds of telco operations around the world, from the largest full stack operators to regional cellular networks, it reduces the cost of operations by consolidating fragmented data systems across network management, billing, customer experience, and more onto a unified, scalable platform.
Rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all cloud approach, a true hybrid data platform gives businesses the flexibility to move workloads between on-premises and public cloud environments — based on cost, regulatory needs, or performance requirements. This means enterprises can train AI models in secure, high-performance data centers and deploy them at scale, without compromising control or compliance.
For telcos, this accelerates network virtualization and service innovation. For media companies, it enables faster content delivery and personalized experiences. And for businesses at large, it powers real-time insights, smarter automation, and scalable AI — without being locked into a single vendor or architecture.
The road ahead
Telecom networks are slowly evolving toward a more agile and software-defined architecture. Virtualization is not a silver bullet, but it is a critical step towards AI, automation, and next-generation services. Telcos must rethink technology, operations and partnerships to get there. The payoff is clear: networks that adapt in real time, deliver better outcomes for businesses and consumers, and lays the groundwork for what comes next – be it AI-driven services, 6G, or beyond.
Anthony Behan is the Managing Director for Communications Media & Entertainment at Cloudera. An industry recognised innovator and evangelist for the power of Data and AI, Anthony was previously an Executive Industry Leader at IBM and held leadership roles in telecommunications software companies in Europe and North America.
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