International Business Machines : Transforming How Telcos Harness Connectivity and Compute for the 5G Era

By Steve Canepa, Global GM & Managing Director, IBM Communications Sector
June 28, 2021

I believe telcos today face an existential moment as 5G and Edge redefine how we connect. To capture new value from enterprise 5G and Edge adoption, telcos have an opportunity to leverage their unique and trusted role in communications. The winners in this new era will be those who embrace an open hybrid cloud approach and become business services platforms.

IBM has long been trusted by the world's telcos to lead them through major technology inflection points, and now is no different - 83% of the world's largest telcos work with IBM, and more than 140 telcos are served by IBM and Red Hat. And that's why today at Mobile World Congress, IBM is making several significant announcements that help telcos make this transformation by adopting open hybrid cloud strategies that keep them in control of where and how they build and deploy their network services, edge computing, and enterprise offerings:

• Verizon has selected IBM and Red Hat to build and deploy an open hybrid cloud platform and service orchestration solution across its 5G core network. Verizon can now scale and deploy new services across a variety of environments and gain new levels of automation, driving down costs and speeding innovation that delivers new value to customers.
• IBM and Telefonica are fueling the development of new enterprise offerings using open hybrid cloud platforms. In Spain, IBM GBS and Telefonica are commercializing new solutions on open hybrid cloud technologies, including two new AI and blockchain offerings. And, in Colombia, Telefonica (Movistar) is harnessing the IBM Cloud for Telecommunications to build next gen solutions that fuel enterprise modernization.
• Telcos can now access AI-powered automation software through the new IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation, which is engineered to run in a wide range of environments on Red Hat OpenShift. The new offering is designed to help organizations simplify the broad adoption of 5G and deliver services in minutes, rather than days.
• IBM is expanding its partner ecosystem to include more than 30 partners helping to deploy edge analytics and intelligent workflows to embedded devices, smart cameras, and into connected products.

What I find so powerful about our news today is that it points to how IBM is helping telcos through an architectural transformation that will enable them to play a leading role in revolutionizing how we live and connect in the 5G era. And the value that can be driven from these innovations is clear - 91% of high performing CSPs surveyed by the IBM Institute for Business Value expect to outperform their current financial expectations in five years as a result of using 5G-enabled edge computing.

Think about the potential of going from telehealth doctor visits to network-enabled remote surgeries; or factory workers who can harness video and augmented reality tools to improve production quality and predict maintenance before it's necessary; or complex, modern power grids that can support clean energy and more intelligent, real-time monitoring via countless 5G-enabled sensors.

As we've done for many years, our teams at IBM are working side by side with the world's leading telcos to enable them to make this ingenuity possible for all of us. And we're doing this by helping them form the crucial technological foundation they need to deliver far greater value across the industry, and to enterprise customers, as connectivity and compute synergize in ways we're only now imagining.

Steve Canepa
Global GM & Managing Director, IBM Communications