Network automation is key to delivering significant opex reduction and increasing agility in the 5G era

Communications service providers’ (CSPs’) success in the 5G era will be defined by their ability to launch and operationalise new digital services for a fraction of their operating cost and to enable the digital transformation of enterprises. However, the existing telecoms operational model is not fit for purpose for the 5G era; business processes such as network design and planning, network roll-out and provisioning, assurance, operations and maintenance are highly disjointed and often require manual interventions and manual inter-departmental handovers, resulting in high opex and limited service agility.