Network Lifecycle Automation – Can CSPs optimize 5G investment?

Communications service providers (CSPs) are continuing to invest aggressively in 5G network rollouts and now find they must better optimize planning, deployment and operations to meet ambitious return on investment (ROI) expectations. Many are turning to Network Lifecycle Automation (NLA) as a new, systematic approach to realizing multi-phase and multi-silo automation use cases.

For this report TM Forum surveyed 170 individuals employed in relevant network and operations roles from 93 CSPs around the globe. The survey gauged those CSPs’ progress in integrating and automating network planning & optimization, testing & deployment, assurance & operations, and reporting & monetization capabilities – also known as network lifecycle automation.

The global survey reveals for the first time, the progress made by CSPs in realizing the blueprint of NLA, and the benefits expected or already achieved when implementing this new systematic approach.

The report details the numerous blockers and unprecedented level of complexity confronting CSPs as their plan, deploy and optimize their 5G networks. CSPs are forced to manage massive volumes of data about business, technology, processes and product performance which creates a noisy environment that is difficult to manage, navigate and improve from end-to-end.

Headline findings of the survey include:

• 87% of communications service providers believe their 5G investments and rollouts could be more efficient and optimized
• 58% of respondents believe their 5G network rollout strategy has taken longer than it should have to execute
• 62% are now turning to ‘Network Lifecycle Automation’ (NLA) to help optimize 5G investments and achieve specific business outcomes