After MWC 2024, TMN wrote about how AT&T was adopting new site management software from Rakuten Symphony to digitise and automate the process of deploying, upgrading and managing sites across its network.
At the time, we quoted Igal Elbaz, SVP, Network CTO, AT&T saying that there were around 7,000 users of Rakuten Symphony’s Site Management software amongst those responsible for deploying and managing its sites, with the software replacing a large number of legacy systems. Elbaz also said there was potential for AT&T to expand its use of Rakuten Symphony’s automated solutions.
He said, “There has been a lot of benefit already in the migration from the old systems to the new system… We’re very excited about this and are thinking about where else we can extend that capability in other parts where we are doing engineering and build,”
Today Rakuten Symphony and AT&T have announced an expansion of their work together, with the operator giving an wider role to Rakuten Symphony’s Site Manager within its processes for managing its Open RAN site re-build, as well as fibre site rollout. A release from the two companies said AT&T has extended a multiyear collaboration agreement to expand adoption of Rakuten Symphony Site Management to accelerate AT&T’s Network Simplification Transformation project and 5G Open RAN deployments.
The company said there are now 10,000 users of the software, which is being used to manage and co-ordinate AT&T’s site swaps and consolidations as it moves to its Ericsson RAN layer, which includes Ericsson’s support for Open RAN interfaces, and a medium term plan to shift to a cloud-native foundation. AT&T has said it wants 70% of its wireless network traffic to “move across open and interoperable platforms” by late 2026, and has started ramping up its Open RAN deployments in 2025. The operator is also using the software to orchestrate and support the deployment of its fibre expansion plans.
A sneak glimpse at the future of AI ops
The AT& T announcement is reinforced by Rakuten Symphony’s launch of Site Manager 2.0 – its upgrade which adds new AI capabilities to the product.
These include automated visual analysis of site images, to detect faults or give approval. It also adds the ability to automate information processing by auto-extracting data, completing forms and tracking deadlines, automate feasibility analysis, as well as use predictive analytics to optimise workflows.
Along with its Intelligent Network Operations suite, Site Management is one of the two foundational products via which Rakuten Symphony markets and bases its OSS capabilities. These wrap up capabilities such as assurance, fault and performance management into a structure which sees automated applications fed by a common data and observability layer.
Mirroring the Site Management approach, the structure leverages data extraction and observability to enable use cases such as anomaly detection, RIC/rApp operation, automated configuration, zero touch provisioning and so on.
Rakuten Symphony executives say that the current integration of AI capabilities is just the start of where it wants to take the implementation of AI within operation systems.
Vivek Murthy, President of OSS BU, Rakuten Symphony, says that the next level is to master how network operatives interact with AI applications. The future winners in this space will be the companies that can “own the experience” of what Murthy called the “next generation interface.”
“However good your single pane of glass is, it is still a complicated user experience. But once you have all the data in pace, the game changer is to lift that UI into being a conversational engagement. The paradigm shift is that no-one should ever look at a graphical user interface any more. The only question is how quickly that happens.”
Murthy said that Rakuten Symphony is building its own LLMs and SLMs, using technologies such as Retrieval and Cache-Augmented Generation, to build an AI layer on top of its data. The aim is to be able to create a Natural Language Programming interface that can intelligently understand the intention of the operative, as well as co-ordinate between AI capabilities such as AI agents, making the necessary links and connections to fulfil an operation.
The company thinks that if it gets this right, it will make it a very sticky proposition for customers. On the other hand, it is aware that somebody else could come along and disintermediate them, just as telco operators were swept aside by the iPhone UI in the device space.
“We know that if we don’t do it someone else will come and build on top of our things. At the same time it’s still our data, our systems, so our hope is if we get it right our customers will stick with us,” Murthy said. “The reason we are positive is that the fundamental challenge in AI is data instrumentation – that’s the foundation.”
But with the speed with which AI technology is accelerating and shrinking in cost, it is the ones that can leverage those foundations and the increased use of AI, and “design the iPhone experience” will take the market, Murthy said.
At the moment, it’s still too early for Rakuten Symphony to have productised its ambitions around a Natural Language UI. It is not, as Murthy says, something that has been formalised, but the company knows it needs to create a paradigm shift to enable more intelligent interaction with and between the AI that is increasingly going to be embedded in its systems.
