Industry pressed over Level 4 progress

LIVE FROM FUTURENET WORLD, LONDON : Rick Hamilton, CEO of network intelligence company Infovista ( pictured, far right ), argued the industry must improve its focus and move faster if operators are to ever achieve Level 4 autonomy in their networks. The executive pulled no punches in his assessment of moves to automate networks, pointing to traditional information silos and a lack of clarity over what operators want to achieve as barriers. What is it? The TM Forum defines six levels of automation, the lowest involving basic systems and the highest being fully self-controlled networks. In a blog published in 2025 it stated most operators aim to achieve Level 4 “within the next few years”, which would involve “multi-domain orchestration and advanced intent management”. But Hamilton said the telecoms industry still needs “to break these unholy bonds of deep siloes that prevent us from achieving Level 4”. “My view is we’re still stuck, there is a lack of focus on the real goal”. Hamilton explained there is sometimes a reticence among operators about whether they really need to make the shift to Level 4, though accepted fellow panellists had rightly argued the industry has the skills and technology to do so. He noted operators question which silos are the most important and whether they must all be involved in the automation push. “The opportunity is there, I think the imperative is there. The question is are we ever going to break down this madness that prevents us from moving at pace?” Operators Industry players responded by noting they are mostly on track. MasOrange CTO Miguel Santos ( pictured, second from right ) argued the work towards the broader goal is likely to deliver benefits in the near-term because some of the systems it is developing can be deployed sooner, “adding value to the company, adding value to the management” and, in turn, helping it to progress. Santos said MasOrange is well on the way, though explained it is unlikely to achieve Level 4 capabilities until 2028 at the earliest. Cathal Kennedy, acting EVP and group CTO at Telenor ( pictured, second from left ), believes the industry already addressed Hamilton’s concerns, with the need for Level 4 galvanising it “to get our act together”. He argues there is broad recognition of the need to improve infrastructure and operations, though conceded there is still some need for speed to help operators deliver the resilience required to provide trusted connectivity services globally. MEO CT