Its accessible and flexible design will allow telecom providers, across the globe, to add AI capabilities to various parts of their infrastructure, including radio access networks (RAN), security systems, data centers, and network routing. This will make networks more manageable and responsive to issues, resulting in a smoother user experience.
Jio will be the first to try out this new platform in hopes of setting an example for other telecom providers around the world. According to Jio, the goal is to create a model that others can easily follow and put into action going forward. Oommen expects the first innovation from this alliance to come in this calendar year.
For Cisco, this alliance is a continuation of the strategy put in place several years ago to be more interoperable and open. Historically, Cisco has been accused of being closed and proprietary and keeping customers locked into their products. While I think the competitive chatter was far greater than the reality, there was some truth to it.
This is something Jeetu Patel, who took on the role of chief product officer last year, has changed.
“Over the past three to four years, we have made a huge amount of progress in this area. We have partnerships with Microsoft in security; our collaboration products work with Microsoft Teams and Zoom; our XDR takes in telemetry from competitors; and we have partnerships with multiple AI companies,” Patel told me.
The willingness to be open is something all vendors should embrace as openness creates better competition and drives innovation and brings costs down. The democratization of AI creates a better world, like the way making the Internet ubiquitous did. The Open Telecom AI Platform allows more companies to participate in AI and share in the upside creating a “rising tide” that will fundamentally transform telecommunications, which is long overdue.
