Serbia Enters the 5G Era as Operators Accelerate Nationwide Upgrades

Serbia’s mobile telecommunications market has evolved significantly over the past few years. While the country spent several years preparing for next-generation connectivity through trials and infrastructure upgrades, commercial 5G services only became a reality at the end of 2025.

Data from GSMA Intelligence indicates that Serbia had 8.45 million cellular mobile connections at the end of 2025.

To provide context, it is common for the number of mobile connections to exceed the total population because many individuals use more than one SIM or mobile subscription. For instance, a person may have one connection for personal use and another for work purposes. The growing availability of eSIM technology has made it even easier for users to maintain multiple mobile connections in recent years.

GSMA Intelligence data shows that the total number of mobile connections in Serbia was equivalent to 127 percent of the country’s population in October 2025. Looking at recent trends, the total number of mobile connections in Serbia declined by around 215 thousand, or 2.5 percent, between the end of 2024 and the end of 2025. The data also indicates that 95.4 percent of mobile connections in Serbia can now be classified as broadband connections, meaning that they operate on 3G, 4G, or 5G mobile networks.

However, it is important to note that devices capable of connecting to broadband mobile networks do not necessarily use cellular mobile data. Some subscriptions, for example, may only provide access to voice calls and SMS services. As a result, the share of broadband connections should not be interpreted as a direct measure of mobile internet usage.

Today, the Serbian mobile market is served by three nationwide operators: Telekom Srbija (mts), Yettel Serbia (formerly Telenor Serbia), and A1 Serbia (formerly Vip mobile). Together they cover the entire country and are now transitioning from mature LTE networks toward full 5G deployments.

Based on July 2025 data from Opensignal, Yettel leads the Serbian mobile network market with the best overall experience, securing multiple performance and coverage awards. A1 is a strong competitor, winning several categories, while all operators offer 2G, 3G, and 4G, with 5G deployment expanding in major cities like Belgrade, Niš, and Novi Sad.

Telekom Srbija, operating under the MTS brand, remains the largest telecom operator in the country. It is majority state-owned and offers mobile, fixed broadband, television, and enterprise services.

The operator holds the largest share of the Serbian mobile market, accounting for about 42.7% of the country’s 8.1 million mobile subscribers as of 2024.

Telekom Srbija also leads in network infrastructure. According to regulator reports, it had the highest number of base stations across 2G, 3G, and 4G networks by the end of 2024, reflecting its strong nationwide footprint.

The company had previously conducted 5G trials with vendors such as Ericsson, testing use cases and performance in urban areas. These trials laid the groundwork for commercial deployment once spectrum licences were issued.

The second largest operator is Yettel Serbia, which was previously known as Telenor Serbia before a rebranding in 2022. The company is now part of the e& PPF Telecom Group and provides mobile, broadband, and digital services nationwide.

Yettel holds roughly 33% of Serbia’s mobile market, making it the second-largest operator behind Telekom Srbija.

In preparation for 5G, the operator invested more than €100 million to secure spectrum across key bands such as 700 MHz, 2600 MHz and 3.6 GHz. These frequencies enable a mix of wide-area coverage and high-capacity services required for next-generation networks.

The company has been positioning itself as a strong competitor through network upgrades and digital services, including fixed wireless broadband solutions based on 5G technology.

The third operator is A1 Serbia, part of the A1 Telekom Austria Group. Although smaller than its rivals, it remains a significant player in the Serbian telecom market.

As of 2024, A1 Serbia accounted for around 24.3% of mobile subscribers.

A1 has focused heavily on network modernization and digital infrastructure investments. The company has also announced major investment programmes aimed at expanding fibre infrastructure and strengthening its mobile network in preparation for the 5G era.

Serbia’s long-awaited transition to 5G finally took place in late 2025. The national regulator, RATEL, conducted a multi-band spectrum auction in November 2025 covering frequencies including 700 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2600 MHz and 3.6 GHz.

All three operators: Telekom Srbija, Yettel, and A1, secured licences in the auction, each paying just over €100 million, bringing the total value of the spectrum allocation to around €300 million.

Shortly afterwards, the operators simultaneously activated commercial 5G networks in December 2025, marking the country’s official entry into the 5G era.

Initial coverage focuses on major cities and key tourist areas, with broader nationwide rollout planned through 2026. Users with compatible devices can access the new network where coverage is available.

Serbia’s telecom sector is now entering a new phase of development as operators shift their focus from LTE expansion toward advanced 5G services.

In the short term, operators are expected to concentrate on expanding coverage in urban areas and introducing 5G-based fixed wireless broadband as an alternative to legacy fixed connections.

Over the longer term, the deployment of standalone 5G cores and the expansion of fibre infrastructure will likely play a key role in enabling new digital services, supporting industry modernization, and improving broadband connectivity across both urban and rural regions.

Serbia’s entry into the 5G era represents a significant milestone for the country’s digital economy. With spectrum secured, infrastructure investment under way and competitive pressure among operators increasing, the market is positioned for substantial progress in the years ahead.

Vodafone Approach to AI Driven Networks Built on APIs

At FutureNet World 2026 in London, one of the more thought-provoking sessions came from Víctor Fernández of Vodafone Group, who explored what it really means to enable AI to act at scale through APIs. While much of the industry conversation around AI still focuses on models and data, this talk shifted attention to a more practical layer. If AI agents are to move beyond insights and into action, they need structured, reliable and well-designed interfaces into the network and its capabilities.

The central idea was straightforward but important. AI agents cannot deliver value in isolation. They need access to systems, data and control points, and APIs are the mechanism that makes this possible. However, simply exposing APIs is not enough. If they are not designed with AI consumption in mind, they risk becoming bottlenecks rather than enablers.

A key theme was the need to rethink API design principles for an AI-driven environment. Traditional APIs have largely been built for human developers who understand documentation, constraints and context. AI agents operate differently. They require APIs that are easy to discover, clearly defined and consistent in structure. Standardisation becomes critical here, not just for interoperability across systems, but also to allow agents to reliably interpret and use them without ambiguity.

Closely linked to this is composability. AI agents are most powerful when they can orchestrate multiple services to achieve a goal rather than executing a single isolated task. This means APIs should not be designed as standalone endpoints, but as building blocks that can be combined into workflows. In a telecoms context, this could involve stitching together network data, policy controls and service exposure capabilities to enable more advanced automation scenarios.

Another important aspect discussed was scale. As AI agents begin to interact with APIs at a much higher frequency than human users, the load on systems will increase significantly. This introduces new challenges around monitoring, management and optimisation. It is no longer just about whether an API works, but how it behaves under continuous, automated usage. Observability, rate control and intelligent traffic management become essential to ensure reliability.

There is also a governance dimension. Allowing AI agents to take actions through APIs introduces risks if not properly controlled. Mechanisms are needed to define what actions are permitted, under what conditions, and with what level of oversight. This is particularly relevant in telecom networks where certain actions can have wide-ranging operational impacts. Ensuring that AI-driven interactions remain safe and predictable is as important as enabling them in the first place.

The session also highlighted the importance of a developer-friendly ecosystem. Even in an AI-centric world, developers remain central to creating and maintaining the underlying capabilities. Clear documentation, sandbox environments and consistent tooling are all necessary to support both human developers and the AI systems they build. In many ways, the goal is to create an environment where APIs are equally usable by humans and machines.

What stood out from this talk was how it grounded the AI discussion in something tangible. There is a growing recognition that the real challenge is not just building smarter models, but integrating them into operational systems in a way that delivers measurable outcomes. APIs sit right at that intersection.

For operators, this represents both an opportunity and a responsibility. By exposing network capabilities through well-designed APIs, they can enable a new class of applications and services driven by AI. At the same time, they need to ensure that these interfaces are robust, scalable and secure enough to handle the demands of automated consumption.

As the industry continues to explore the role of AI in telecoms, conversations like this help move the narrative forward. They shift the focus from what AI could do in theory to what it needs in practice to operate effectively at scale.

The video of the talk is embedded below:

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Afghanistan’s Telecom Market Between Stability and Control

When the US-backed government collapsed in August 2021, Afghanistan’s telecom sector entered an abrupt period of uncertainty. Two decades of investment had created one of the country’s few nationwide infrastructures. The expectation in many quarters was that this would quickly deteriorate. In reality, that collapse never fully materialised.

Instead, Afghanistan’s mobile sector has settled into something more complex. Networks remain operational and coverage remains relatively broad, but the conditions under which they function have fundamentally changed.

Afghanistan’s telecom market was never a typical emerging market success story. It was built during conflict, shaped by risk, and sustained by a combination of private capital and international donor support.

Operators including Afghan Wireless, Roshan, Etisalat Afghanistan, MTN Group and Afghan Telecom expanded aggressively through the 2000s and 2010s. By the time of the US withdrawal, population coverage had reached close to ninety percent by many estimates, supported by several thousand towers and a growing fibre backbone.

This expansion created a rare outcome in Afghanistan’s infrastructure landscape. Mobile connectivity became both widely available and economically indispensable.

The latest dataset from GSMA Intelligence offers a useful snapshot of where the market stands now.

At the end of 2025, Afghanistan had approximately 22.4 million cellular mobile connections. This is not the same as unique users, as many individuals maintain multiple SIMs for cost, coverage, or work-related reasons. Even so, overall penetration remains relatively modest.

Mobile connections were equivalent to around 50.7 percent of the total population in October 2025. This places Afghanistan well below saturation levels seen in more developed markets, and also below many regional peers.

Growth has slowed significantly. Between the end of 2024 and the end of 2025, the total number of connections increased by only around 101 thousand, representing growth of roughly 0.5 percent. In practical terms, the market is approaching stagnation.

At the same time, the technological profile of the market continues to improve. Around 84 percent of connections are now classified as broadband, meaning they operate on 3G or 4G networks. This reflects years of network upgrades and spectrum investment.

However, this figure requires careful interpretation. A broadband-capable SIM does not necessarily translate into active mobile internet usage. Many users remain on low-cost plans focused on voice and SMS, even if their device and network technically support data.

The result is a market where infrastructure capability has advanced faster than actual digital adoption.

The main mobile operators in Afghanistan as of early 2026 are Afghan Wireless (AWCC), Roshan, Etisalat Afghanistan, MTN Afghanistan, now in transition to ATOMA, and Afghan Telecom’s Salaam Network.

Reliable operator level data is scarce, but a composite view from industry reports and historical benchmarks provides a reasonable indication of market structure. These estimates should be treated as indicative rather than precise.

Roshan remains the leading player, with an estimated share in the range of 35 to 45 percent. Etisalat Afghanistan follows with roughly 25 to 30 percent. Afghan Wireless is typically placed in the 15 to 25 percent range, while the former MTN operation accounts for around 10 to 20 percent. Afghan Telecom and its Salaam brand hold a smaller share, generally below 10 percent.

This distribution reflects a gradual shift over time. Earlier in the market’s development, shares were more evenly balanced. The exit of MTN Group and the ongoing transition to ATOMA have weakened the middle tier and reinforced the position of the leading operators.

What emerges is a structure defined less by intense competition and more by relative stability at the top and fragmentation below.

Each operator occupies a distinct role within this environment.

Roshan continues to act as the reference network. Its scale, investment history, and balanced urban and rural footprint allow it to maintain leadership even in a constrained economic environment. They have over 6.5 million active subscribers across all 34 provinces. Founded in 2003, it is the country's single largest private investor and taxpayer. Their network covers over 387 districts, cities, and towns, reaching approximately 91% of the population. It offers 2G, 3G, and high-speed 4G LTE services.

Etisalat Afghanistan has strengthened its position in urban markets. Its focus on data services and higher value customers reflects a broader shift in where telecom value is generated, particularly as disposable income becomes more concentrated in cities. Launched in August 2007, since then the operator has invested more than $400 Million in Afghanistan and revenue growth has doubled every year. They claim to be the fastest-growing mobile phone company in Afghanistan. Etisalat is providing voice and data services in 34 provinces and 182 districts with more than 12,000 retail outlets. It was the first operator to introduce eSIM technology in Afghanistan, allowing users to switch accounts without physical SIM cards.

Afghan Wireless retains importance through its extensive rural coverage. In many less accessible areas, it effectively functions as the backbone of connectivity, even if its commercial share is lower than the leading operators. It operates a nationwide network providing 4G LTE, 3.75G+, 3G, and 2G services, to  approximately 5 million subscribers across all 34 provinces.

ATOMA, following the exit of MTN Group, represents a disrupted middle tier. While it inherits infrastructure and spectrum, it does not automatically inherit customer trust or brand strength. Its long term position remains uncertain.

Afghan Telecom (Salaam Network)  operates on a different axis. Its market share is limited, but its strategic importance has increased significantly. As a state linked operator, it plays a central role in infrastructure, rural coverage obligations, and increasingly, sector oversight.

However the growing use of shutdowns and network restrictions by the Taliban has introduced a new and defining constraint on Afghanistan’s telecom sector. The nationwide disruption in September 2025, which saw fibre links deliberately cut and connectivity fall to a fraction of normal levels, demonstrated how quickly both internet and mobile services can be curtailed through centralised infrastructure control. 

Reporting from The Guardian described a near total communications blackout in which mobile and internet services were effectively disabled across the country, disrupting everything from banking to basic communications . These interventions have immediate economic and social consequences, but more importantly they redefine the sector’s risk profile. Network performance is no longer determined primarily by coverage, investment, or spectrum, but by political discretion. 

For operators, this complicates long-term planning and weakens incentives to invest. For users, it turns connectivity into something conditional rather than guaranteed.

In that sense, the central challenge facing Afghanistan’s mobile market is no longer how to extend networks, but how to operate them in an environment where they can be partially or entirely switched off at any time.

Telefónica Germany Pushes IoT Beyond Terrestrial Limits

The growing convergence of satellite and cellular connectivity is beginning to reshape how operators approach IoT, and a recent presentation by Miguel Rodriguez, Product Manager IoT at Telefónica Germany, offered a useful perspective on how this shift is playing out in practice.

Speaking at the “5G NTN and Satellite IoT” webinar hosted by Global 5G Evolution, Rodriguez outlined how Telefónica Germany is positioning itself to take advantage of non-terrestrial networks within its broader 5G IoT portfolio. Rather than viewing satellite as a disruptive threat, the company sees it as a natural extension of its connectivity capabilities, enabling it to address use cases that have traditionally remained out of reach.

Telefónica Germany has already built a comprehensive 5G IoT portfolio spanning high performance use cases with standalone and non-standalone 5G, as well as mid and low tier connectivity with RedCap, LTE-M and NB-IoT. The addition of narrowband NTN effectively extends this portfolio beyond terrestrial limitations, particularly for massive IoT deployments that require low power and wide coverage.

A key theme from the presentation was the idea of hybrid connectivity. The goal is not to replace terrestrial networks but to complement them, creating a seamless experience where devices can switch between cellular and satellite depending on availability. This approach is particularly relevant in areas where terrestrial coverage is patchy or economically unviable, such as remote infrastructure, agricultural land, transport corridors and maritime environments.

Rodriguez highlighted that even in mature markets like Germany, there are persistent coverage gaps. These are often in locations where investment in terrestrial infrastructure does not make commercial sense, yet where IoT data can be highly valuable. Satellite connectivity provides a practical way to fill these gaps, ensuring continuity of service and enabling new types of deployments.

On a global scale, the limitations become even more apparent. While low power wide area networks such as NB-IoT and LTE-M have achieved significant reach, there are still many regions without coverage or with limited roaming agreements. Satellite IoT offers a way to achieve truly global deployments, including in regions such as parts of Africa, Latin America and across oceans.

Telefónica Germany’s strategy involves working with multiple satellite partners to address different connectivity needs. For geostationary connectivity, it collaborates with Skylo, focusing on consistent availability and a well-developed device ecosystem. For low Earth orbit connectivity, it partners with OQ Technology, enabling intermittent but cost-effective communication suitable for periodic data transmission. On the broadband side, solutions involving Starlink are being integrated to support higher throughput use cases.

An important aspect of this approach is how it is packaged for customers. Telefónica Germany is aiming to simplify what could otherwise become a complex multi-network environment. The operator acts as a single contracting partner, providing one interface for connectivity management, data access and billing. This abstraction is critical in making hybrid connectivity accessible, particularly for enterprises that do not want to manage multiple providers and technologies.

Affordability also plays a central role. The ambition is to make satellite IoT viable for large scale deployments rather than niche applications. By integrating satellite usage into existing tariffs and enabling opportunistic connectivity, Telefónica Germany is attempting to lower the barrier to entry and support the expansion of massive IoT.

Beyond connectivity, the challenge of integrating satellite data into cloud platforms was also addressed. Narrowband satellite communication typically relies on lightweight protocols that are not directly compatible with standard cloud interfaces. Telefónica Germany’s Kite platform acts as a bridge, converting data into formats suitable for hyperscaler environments such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. This allows devices to remain efficient in terms of power and bandwidth while still enabling seamless cloud integration.

The energy sector emerged as a particularly strong use case for hybrid connectivity. From generation to distribution and consumption, there are numerous points where reliable data collection is critical. Satellite connectivity can support both primary communication in remote areas and fallback scenarios during outages, enhancing the resilience of energy infrastructure.

What becomes clear from this presentation is that non-terrestrial networks are not being treated as a separate domain but as an integral part of the overall connectivity fabric. The combination of terrestrial and satellite networks, supported by unified platforms and commercial models, is moving the industry closer to the idea of ubiquitous coverage.

For operators, this represents both a technical and strategic shift. The ability to offer global, seamless connectivity across multiple access technologies could become a key differentiator, particularly in enterprise and IoT markets. For customers, it opens up new possibilities for deploying connected devices in places that were previously considered unreachable.

The evolution of 5G into a truly integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial ecosystem is still in its early stages, but the direction is becoming increasingly clear. Hybrid connectivity is no longer just a concept. It is starting to take shape as a practical and scalable solution for the next phase of IoT growth.

The talk is embedded below:

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Norway’s Mobile Market Balances Competition and Performance

Data from GSMA Intelligence indicates that there were 6.07 million cellular mobile connections in Norway at the end of 2025. For context, many individuals use more than one mobile connection, so it is common for the total number of connections to exceed the total population. For instance, a person may have one mobile connection for personal use and another for work. The growing availability of eSIM technology has made it even easier to manage multiple connections in recent years.

GSMA Intelligence’s figures show that mobile connections in Norway were equal to 108 percent of the total population in October 2025. Looking at changes over time, the number of mobile connections in Norway declined by 35 thousand, or 0.6 percent, between the end of 2024 and the end of 2025.

At the same time, GSMA Intelligence reports that 99.1 percent of mobile connections in Norway can now be classified as broadband, meaning they connect through 3G, 4G, or 5G mobile networks. However, devices that are capable of connecting to broadband mobile networks do not always use cellular data. Some subscription plans may only provide access to voice and SMS services, so this broadband figure should not be interpreted as a direct measure of mobile internet usage.

Norway’s mobile market is characterised by a relatively concentrated structure, with three mobile network operators and a range of mobile virtual network operators that rely on wholesale access to the main networks. The three companies that operate mobile network infrastructure in Norway are Telenor, Telia Norway, and Ice. These operators account for the vast majority of mobile subscriptions in the country and provide the underlying infrastructure that supports a number of smaller service providers.

Historically, Norway’s mobile market has been dominated by two large operators. Telenor has long been the market leader, while Telia has served as the primary challenger since entering the market through its predecessor NetCom. Over the past decade, Ice has emerged as a third infrastructure operator following significant investment in network deployment.

The presence of three network operators has strengthened competition in the Norwegian mobile sector, although the market remains relatively concentrated compared with larger European markets.

Telenor continues to hold the largest share of mobile subscriptions in Norway. The company operates extensive nationwide infrastructure and has historically maintained strong coverage across both urban and rural areas.

Telenor Norway reports 111k FWA subs in Dec 2025, a number that is the same as in the beginning of 2022 (or 15k down from peak). The total number of fixed broadband subs (incl. FWA) is in decline as a growth in fibre subs can't compensate for losses in cable and FWA. FWA now 16% of total base.

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— Tefficient🚥 (@tefficient.bsky.social) 6 February 2026 at 08:14

Telenor also emerges as the dominant force in Norway’s mobile landscape, retaining its Best Network title and standing out as the most-awarded operator in Opensignal’s November 2025 report. From the awards grid, Telenor secures six outright wins and five joint wins, leading in 11 out of 15 measured categories. Telia follows with two outright and six joint wins, while ice collects five joint wins, according to real-world experience data recorded by users.

Telia Norway represents the second largest operator and competes directly with Telenor across most segments of the market. The operator has invested heavily in network upgrades in recent years and has expanded its 5G footprint across the country.

Following on several trials, Telia is first to launch 5G SA commercially in Norway. Telia now offers 5G SA as 'Avansert 5G' to B2B customers across its 5G network nationwide. kommunikasjon.ntb.no/pressemeldin...

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— Tefficient🚥 (@tefficient.bsky.social) 13 February 2026 at 06:18

Ice, the third network operator, has focused on building its own infrastructure while also relying on national roaming agreements to extend coverage beyond its network footprint. The company has positioned itself as a challenger operator with a focus on competitive pricing and data centric mobile plans.

Breaking: Lyse Tele (ice Norge) and Telia Norway to share mobile network across Norway, a first for the country. news.cision.com/telia-compan...

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— Tefficient🚥 (@tefficient.bsky.social) 2 February 2026 at 18:06

Norway has consistently ranked among the leading European markets in terms of mobile network performance and coverage. Independent benchmarking conducted by Rohde & Schwarz has placed Norwegian operators among the strongest performers globally, reflecting sustained investment in network infrastructure despite the country’s challenging geography and dispersed population. In recent testing covering more than 7,000 kilometres and over half of the population.

Which country - Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden - has the highest mobile and fixed broadband ARPU? What value for money do customers get? The Norwegian government's @dfd.regjeringen.no made this Tefficient analysis public. www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumente...

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— Tefficient🚥 (@tefficient.bsky.social) 8 March 2026 at 09:19

The country’s operators have invested heavily in 4G and more recently 5G infrastructure. For example, Telia reported that its 5G network now reaches close to 99 percent of Norway’s population following several years of nationwide deployment, highlighting the rapid pace of next generation network rollout in the market.

Recent industry developments include plans by Telia and Lyse, the parent company of Ice, to combine parts of their mobile radio access networks in Norway through a jointly owned entity. The companies expect the arrangement to reduce infrastructure costs and improve coverage while continuing to operate as separate retail competitors with independent core networks.

Norway’s mobile market is likely to remain relatively stable in terms of structure. The presence of three infrastructure operators, combined with a range of virtual operators, provides a balance between network investment and retail competition.

Future developments in the sector will likely be shaped by continued 5G deployment, infrastructure sharing arrangements, and the evolving role of wholesale access in supporting smaller mobile brands.

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Why Operators Must Simplify Before They Automate

The pursuit of end to end automation remains a cornerstone of modern telecommunications strategy as operators transition from traditional manual processes to fully autonomous networks. A recent panel by Mobile Europe, moderated by Inderpreet Kaur from Omdia, featuring Afnan Ahmed of Telenor, José Palma of MEO, and Beatriz Ortega of Red Hat explored the current state of this journey and the significant hurdles that remain before the industry can claim true network autonomy.

The discussion cantered on the TM Forum framework for autonomous networks which categorises progress into six levels from zero to five. While many operators are actively automating tasks, the majority currently sit between level one and level two. These early stages involve static or rule based automation where human intervention is required for most decisions. The transition to level three and level four represents a significant leap. At level four, the system manages observability, analysis, and execution with humans only defining the initial intent. This move from deterministic rule based logic to probabilistic reasoning powered by artificial intelligence is where the industry sees both the greatest potential and the most significant cultural resistance.

A recurring theme throughout the session was the challenge of data management. Although telecommunications networks generate vast quantities of information, this data often remains siloed within specific domains like radio access networks or core networks. Creating a unified data mesh or knowledge graph is essential for achieving cross domain automation. The panellists noted that the solution is not simply building a larger data lake. Instead, the focus must be on data correlation. When an issue occurs in one part of the network, the system must understand how that event impacts other domains in real time. Without this level of visibility, end to end automation remains impossible.

Another major obstacle is the sheer complexity of existing operations support systems. Some large operators manage over one thousand different tools, many of which are homegrown or vendor specific. This fragmentation makes it incredibly difficult to implement a cohesive automation strategy. Panellists suggested that operators must radically reimagine their tool suites. The goal should be a vendor agnostic architecture that follows open standards like the Open Digital Architecture from TM Forum. By simplifying the network environment before attempting to automate it, operators can avoid the trap of merely automating existing inefficiencies.

Moving to higher levels of autonomy requires a fundamental shift in how engineers interact with the network. There is a natural fear of losing control when a system begins making its own decisions. To combat this, experts recommend a phased approach where artificial intelligence is first used in an open loop system. In this model, the system provides recommendations that a human operator must validate. Only after the system has proven its reliability over time is the loop closed, allowing the software to execute changes automatically. This process of building trust is vital for ensuring network resilience as systems move toward self healing capabilities.

While operational efficiency and cost reduction are clear drivers, the panel emphasised that autonomy must be viewed as a business transformation rather than just a technical one. The ultimate goal is to enhance customer experience and enable new revenue streams through services like automated network slicing. By achieving level four autonomy, operators can respond to market demands with a speed that manual processes cannot match. This agility is necessary to compete in a digital ecosystem where customers expect near instantaneous service provisioning and seamless performance across diverse network environments.

The shift toward autonomous operations introduces new risks, particularly in cyber security. An automated network could potentially propagate an attack or a misconfiguration much faster than a manual one. There is also the concern of data poisoning, where malicious actors could inject false information to manipulate the decision making process of the network. To mitigate these risks, operators must maintain rigorous data governance and ensure that artificial intelligence decisions remain explainable. Providing a clear audit trail of why a system took a specific action is essential for security and regulatory compliance. Despite these challenges, the consensus remains that the journey toward autonomous networks is an inevitable and necessary evolution for the telecommunications industry.

The video of the discussion as follows:

How Telenor Keeps Svalbard Connected at the Edge of the World

Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, situated halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, and is known for its dramatic glaciers, rugged terrain, and a population of polar bears that outnumbers humans. Despite being about as remote as it gets for a functioning community, Svalbard is a premier destination for Arctic adventures such as dog sledding, northern lights viewing, and polar exploration, with Longyearbyen serving as the main settlement and hub alongside communities like Ny Ålesund and Barentsburg. Remarkably, even in these tiny settlements and extreme polar conditions, residents and visitors can make voice calls, send texts, and stream photos, showcasing how modern connectivity thrives in one of the most isolated places on Earth.

The unique telecom landscape of Svalbard is shaped by its governance under the Svalbard Treaty and is part of the Kingdom of Norway. It uses the Norwegian country code (+47) and integrates into Norway’s telecom framework, but due to geography and policy, its connectivity looks very different from the mainland. Svalbard’s remote Arctic setting brings harsh weather and vast areas with no coverage outside major settlements, yet it remains connected to the global internet through the Svalbard Undersea Cable System, a twin submarine fiber link to northern Norway that provides essential bandwidth for both mobile and fixed telecommunications. In its early years, satellite links were vital for communication, but today fiber infrastructure has become the backbone, enabling more stable and higher capacity connectivity.

In Svalbard, Telenor Norge is the dominant mobile network operator and, in practice, the only company physically deploying cellular infrastructure across the archipelago. Telenor has a long and historic presence in Svalbard dating back to the early 1900s, when it provided some of the first telephone and radio services, and today it operates the region’s cellular networks, evolving from GSM to 3G and 4G LTE while also testing 5G for mission critical and emergency use in the uniquely challenging Arctic environment. Early GSM 2G coverage enabled basic voice calls and SMS, followed by the introduction of 3G services in Longyearbyen in the early 2000s, which brought mobile data for the first time. Today, 4G LTE is standard in populated areas such as Longyearbyen, Barentsburg, and Ny Ålesund, making Svalbard home to one of the northernmost LTE networks in the world, and as of 2025, 5G trials are underway for specialized use cases. As a result, residents, researchers, and tourists can access relatively modern mobile data, but only within the limited network footprint of town centres and nearby settlements.

地球上で3番目と4番目に北にある基地局。事業者はTelenor Svalbard pic.twitter.com/j09v53bVu9

— ぱおぱお (@paopao0128) January 31, 2026

In practice, mobile coverage in Svalbard is concentrated around a few key settlements and drops off quickly beyond them. Longyearbyen has the most comprehensive service, with strong 4G LTE coverage throughout the town and nearby areas, supporting calls, data, navigation, messaging, weather checks, emergencies, local transport, and tourism services. Ny Ålesund historically lacked regular mobile coverage due to strict restrictions on radio frequencies around research facilities, but Telenor has since installed a tailored mobile network there, making it the northernmost operational mobile station in the world. Barentsburg is also served by the network, although coverage is generally more limited than in Longyearbyen. Outside these towns there is no mobile service at all, and once you head into the wilderness for activities such as hiking or fieldwork, you are completely offline, which is why satellite communications like Iridium devices remain essential for polar expeditions and remote research.

Other operators can technically work in Svalbard, but almost always through Telenor’s infrastructure. Official licensing records show that a few Norwegian operators, including ICE and Telia Norge, hold mobile spectrum assignments for Svalbard, yet in practice Telenor is the only operator running live cellular infrastructure in the archipelago. Many smaller or virtual operators simply roam on Telenor’s network when in Svalbard, and real world reports from locals and travellers indicate that providers such as ICE rely on Telenor’s base stations because there is no alternative network in town. Telia and others may have spectrum rights on paper, but they do not operate separate physical networks in Svalbard. For visitors using Norwegian or international SIM cards, roaming agreements and coverage can vary, but when a phone does connect, it is effectively using Telenor’s network in these Arctic settlements.

Looking into the future, as Arctic activity continues to grow from tourism to scientific research, Norway is pushing the boundaries of mobile technology in some of the harshest polar conditions on Earth. Ongoing 5G trials aimed at supporting mission critical services such as coordinated rescue operations highlight how Svalbard remains a frontier for telecom innovation. Whether you are planning a journey north or are simply fascinated by communications in extreme environments, Svalbard’s mobile landscape shows that even near the roof of the Earth, staying connected is possible with the right network and careful preparation.