Jio, a division of Reliance Industries Limited, and TM Forum, an international alliance of telecom and digital businesses, collaborated to open the first-ever TM Forum Innovation Hub in Mumbai, India. The goal of this special hub—the first of its type in the industry—is to advance large language models (LLM), open digital architecture, and generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) for the good of the telecom industry as a whole.
At the inauguration event, which took place at the Reliance Corporate IT Park in Navi Mumbai, attendees included founding members Accenture, Deutsche Telekom, Google Cloud, Orange, Telenor, and Vodafone together with representatives from the TM Forum and Jio. At the Innovation Hub, talent from the telecom and IT sectors will work in hybrid teams to tackle the most critical issues facing the sector.
Mumbai was selected as the hub’s location to represent India’s pivotal role in the world’s software development talent pool. With over 37,000 active Forum member professionals living in India, it is clear that TM Forum is committed to the country.
The application of generative AI and LLM to telecom businesses’ critical use cases is one of the Innovation Hub’s initial target areas. This entails developing an architecture blueprint that addresses issues like as security, privacy, accuracy, performance, and scalability in order to responsibly deploy Gen AI in the current telecom technology landscapes.
The second area of attention is on accelerating the creation and implementation of the Open Digital Architecture (ODA) proposed by TM Forum. ODA is intended to replace operational support systems (OSS) and business support systems (BSS) with cloud-native software that is modular, componentized, and reusable. Developing Reference Implementations of the ODA Canvas and its components, as well as creative ways to streamline the transition from outdated software, are among the goals.
Mr. Akash Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, commented on the opening of the Innovation Hub and expressed enthusiasm about promoting innovation in Mumbai and working together to address industry concerns. The TM Forum CEO, Nik Willetts, stressed the hub’s role in producing game-changing solutions, while Dr. Steffen Roehn, the chair of the organisation, emphasised the significance of open collaboration for the industry’s future.
Among the original members of the Innovation Hub are Accenture, Deutsche Telekom, Google Cloud, Orange, Reliance Jio, Telenor, and Vodafone. The hub was revealed two months ago. The programme will provide useful solutions, test TM Forum standards, speed up code development, and industrialise concepts studied in the Catalyst programme, all of which will benefit TM Forum members and the industry at large.
The Innovation Hub program’s pilot phase is anticipated to end in March 2024. TM Forum Members will then be encouraged to either propose new initiatives or continue with ongoing ones in 2024. The goal of the Innovation Hub programme is to change the telecom sector and set it on a new course by making it a dynamic component of the digital environment.
