Jio, in collaboration with TM Forum, the leading global alliance of telco and tech companies, inaugurated the inaugural ceremony for the first TM Forum Innovation Hub situated in Mumbai, India, on December 01, 2023. This association will initially concentrate on expediting the advancement of Generative AI (Gen AI), Large Language Models (LLM), and Open Digital Architecture, all to the benefit of the entire industry.
How Jio and TM Forum will revolutionise the state of AI in India
Mr. Akash Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, stated, "The TM Forum Innovation Hub is about delivering real-world solutions that will change our industry and there is no better way than to lean on talent from across the industry to solve our existing challenges as well as finding better ways to overcome future obstacles.”
He further added, “We are delighted to see the first innovation hub open on our Mumbai campus as I believe Mumbai is the perfect location to foster the innovation needed. This is a really exciting time for Jio, TM Forum and the wider telecoms industry and we are honoured to be at the heart of this project."
Dr. Steffen Roehn, TM Forum Chair and Partner at Bain & Company, commented, "Rapid and open collaboration is paramount for the future of our industry. The TM Forum Innovation Hub will prove invaluable as our members explore new technologies and radical approaches to transform their organisations.”
He further said: “We are delighted to closely collaborate with Jio and all founding members on this inaugural Innovation Hub in Mumbai and eagerly anticipate the outcomes of the hub's pilot projects."
Leaders from Jio along with representatives from the Innovation Hub, Accenture, Google Cloud, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telenor, and Vodafone, graced the occasion with their presence at the Reliance Corporate IT Park in Navi, Mumbai. Here, hybrid teams comprising of talent from across the tech and telecom sector will collaborate to deliver breakthrough solutions for the industry's most pressing challenges.
Mumbai was chosen as the location for the first TM Forum Innovation Hub, recognising India as the epicentre of global techies. This initiative builds upon TM Forum's longstanding commitment to India, where more than 37,000 active Forum member professionals are based.
One of the hub's initial focus will be the application of LLM and Generative AI to critical use cases for telcos. This includes developing an architecture blueprint to simplify responsible use of generative AI for telecom technology landscapes, addressing related challenges such as security, accuracy, privacy, performance, and scalability.
Another focus area is accelerating the development and adoption of TMForum's Open Digital Architecture (ODA). ODA facilitates the creation of modular, componentised, and reusable cloud-native software to replace traditional BSS and OSS. Objectives include creating Reference Implementation(s) of the ODA Canvas and components, as well as migration patterns and innovative approaches to simplify migration from legacy software to ODA-compliant, cloud-native components.
The Innovation Hub program was unveiled two months ago at the TM Forum's annual DTW – Ignite conference in Copenhagen. Founding members Accenture, Deutsche Telekom, Google Cloud, Orange, Reliance Jio, Telenor, and Vodafone are all contributing a range of expertise and resources to the hub, including experts, physical space, technology capabilities, and professional services. The first Innovation Hub teams will consist of staff from these organizations working both physically and virtually.
The outcomes of Innovation Hub projects will benefit the entire TM Forum members and industries at large in several ways:
- Offering a new collaborative approach for solving industry challenges with tangible results that can be practically implemented, including working code or concepts proven at scale in operational or shadow-operational environments.
- Testing and iterating TM Forum standards to offer critical implementation experience to core standards development teams.
- Expediting the development of code assets (e.g., Open Digital Architecture components and Open APIs) to be contributed toward TM Forum collaboration projects.
- Industrialising concepts to be explored in the Catalyst program and sharing the learnings with the broader industry.
Finally...
The pilot phase of the Innovation Hub program is expected to conclude in March 2024, with a third pilot project starting shortly after that. The TM Forum Members will be invited to apply to join an existing Innovation Hub project or propose a new one in 2024. To be considered to join a project, member companies will need to exhibit the distinct expertise the project requires, as well as meet the minimum dedicated resource commitment. The Innovation Hub program and its first cohort of companies will thus continue their work in enhancing generative AI going forward.
