TM Forum Tracks Telco Network Autonomy

Why this is here: China Mobile has deployed autonomous fault management across regions serving 660 million subscribers—a scale exceeding other operators currently measured by TM Forum.

TM Forum assesses the telecom industry is currently between levels 1.5 and 2.1 for network autonomy, with China Mobile leading deployments at scale. The organization is developing vendor-agnostic blueprints to help operators move toward level four autonomy across their entire network operations.

George Glass, chief technology officer at TM Forum, explains the progression involves linking individual “use-case scenarios” and standardizing them to work across different vendor configurations. Telefónica and Orange are advancing these efforts in Europe, while Mavenir, Nokia, and Ericsson are also making contributions.

Currently, most operators automate existing processes rather than building truly autonomous capabilities. TM Forum measures autonomy using key performance indicators—seeing roughly 30% improvements in mean-time-to-repair and 15% reductions in support tickets.

However, achieving full level four autonomy requires more than just faster automation; it demands a fundamental shift in network architecture. The organization will showcase wall-to-wall fault management at Digital Transformation World, demonstrating coordinated solutions across multiple domains.