Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Mumbai, India: How TCS developed a business-critical 5G solution with Telenor

Total 634 words used.

Following on the heels of 3G and 4G, you’d be forgiven for thinking that 5G is just the next step in the progression of mobile connectivity, offering a bit more speed and availability. But the advent of 5G has brought much faster speeds, much more capacity, and much lower latency than previous generations – and opened a whole new landscape for network providers.

For one multinational telecoms company, providing mobile and Internet services via a manual Mobile Private Network (MPN) was no longer an option – especially when the company’s key strategic objective is to increase its enterprise customer base and open new sources of income.

The telecoms giant needed to create a robust and scalable platform for delivering demand-driven 5G across the Nordics, which would allow a self-service setup.

A collaborative implementation

In June 2023, the telecoms provider partnered with long-term strategic ally TCS, as well as Nokia and Red Hat, to deliver a cutting-edge MPN-as-a-service solution that would allow its customers to create and manage their own private mobile networks using 5G technology.

TCS used a project to automate MPN deployment for the Norwegian MoD as a template for large-scale enterprise implementations and designed a solution with three main parts:

• Using its experience in cloud-native and micro-service architectures (where development is carried out in small, independent parts), TCS built a self-service platform that allows business customers to ask for, set up, and check their MPN services through a simple user interface. The platform handles the whole ordering process – while ensuring seamless integration with existing systems.
   
• Nokia created an Orchestration Center for automatic deployment of MPN in the 5G SA core (the central part of the 5G network that controls and manages functions and services). This used network slicing to create dedicated virtual networks for each customer, with customized performance, security, and quality parameters.
   
• Collaboration among TCS, Nokia, and Red Hat allowed automation of the deployment of infrastructure, network services, and applications from multiple vendors in a cloud-native way. This enabled the quick provisioning and scaling of MPN services, as well as the flexibility to add new features and functionalities.

Results beyond expectations

TCS and it client successfully developed a seamless self-service platform that allows single-click network slicing, with the following benefits:

• Rapid deployment: Eliminating the need for multiple administrators to configure different nodes has reduced deployment time from 2-3 days to just 20-30 minutes.

• Improved efficiency: Automated active monitoring functionality have saved the time spent in detecting faults and enhanced time to resolution.
   
• Enhanced flexibility: The multi-vendor 5G SA core network provided the flexibility to choose the most cost-effective network functions, avoiding vendor lock-in and reducing costs. On-demand scaling allowed operators to decommission and redeploy services as needed, maximizing resource utilization and reducing over-dimensioning.

• Customer engagement and revenue growth: All of the above, as well as automating processes has freed up operators to respond to customers promptly – in turn leading to  increased customer satisfaction and longer customer retention. What’s more, operators can accommodate an increased number of customers with improved value-added features and service quality, bolstering the potential for revenue generation.

A critical element for success was the combination of skills and knowledge from TCS, Nokia, and Red Hat, who all collaborated to ensure the solution had all the elements to deliver the above results. Indeed, this combination of expertise created a solution so impressive that the four companies set up a joint innovation lab to show the platform's capabilities to the Norwegian MoD and other B2B customers.

The company has enhanced its operational efficiency, revenue potential, and customer satisfaction by shifting from manual processes to an automated 5G system. This fast deployment and monetization of 5G services has led to additional revenue and kept it on track to achieve its strategic objectives and positioned the business ahead in the telecom industry's evolution.

Total 149 words used.

1. Developed an intuitive self-service platform for business customers to request, set up, and manage their MPN services through a simple user interface, streamlining the ordering process and ensuring integration with existing systems.

2. Reduced MPN deployment time from 2-3 days to 20-30 minutes by automating configurations and eliminating the need for multiple administrators, enabling faster time to market for network operators.

3. Automated active monitoring, to quickly detect faults and enhance resolution time, significantly improving network reliability and efficiency.

4. Enabled on-demand scaling to maximize utilization and prevent over-dimensioning. The multi-vendor 5G standalone core network offers the flexibility to choose cost-effective network functions.

5. Established a joint innovation lab to showcase the platform’s capabilities to the Norwegian MoD and B2B customers.

6. Allowed the company’s customers to transition from manual processes to an automated 5G system, enabling fast deployment and monetization of 5G services – leading to additional revenue.

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