Ante Mihovilovic, Vice President and Head of Networks at Ericsson Europe, Middle East and Africa
The shift from traditional telecom operators who provide just connectivity to full-fledged technology companies who deliver a broad suite of digital services is not just a vision; it’s already happening, and it’s being powered by AI, automation, cloud and data-driven operations. The operators who adapt the fastest will lead the next decade of digital growth on the continent.
A three-dimensional shift
This industry-wide transformation is taking place across three dimensions – strategy and business, tech and operations, and culture and mindset. Together, these dimensions define the telco-to-techco journey, where at the finish line, operators don’t just connect people but enable entire digital ecosystems.
In strategy and business, operators are moving toward new revenue streams, digital business models and enhanced customer experiences. It’s no longer about selling data plans – it’s about delivering digital value.
In tech and operations, networks are evolving from hardware-heavy, network-centric setups to agile, software-driven, technology-first environments. Telecom and tech are converging, with automation, application programming interfaces (APIs) and AI becoming part of daily operations.
In culture and mindset, this requires a new way of working – open collaboration with hyperscalers, developers and ecosystem players. Operators must cultivate an agile digital mindset that embraces innovation and continuous learning.
The traditional telco mindset focuses on stability, structure and risk avoidance. In contrast, the techco mindset is about agility, customer obsession and ownership – where people have ‘skin in the game’, where collaboration replaces hierarchy, and where decision-making becomes faster and more data-driven. AI-native networks, innovation and customer-centricity all depend on operators adopting this new digital-first mindset.
Building AI-native networks
At Ericsson, we are helping operators across Africa and beyond embrace this trend, unlock new value streams and build AI-native networks of the future. We’re embedding AI in every layer – in operations, management and the network itself. We’re transforming networks into intelligent systems and extending AI to support both telecom and enterprise use cases. For example, our AI-powered link adaptation improves spectrum efficiency, allowing operators to deliver better user experiences with the same spectrum.
With Vonage AI Studio, we bring AI capabilities directly to enterprises, enabling AI assistants, intelligent customer engagement and automation across industries. We’re merging network intelligence with enterprise AI to drive new business value.
As GenAI applications – from video generation to real-time conversational agents – grow, networks must handle massive, unpredictable data flows. Our platforms already meet these new demands with high-performance differentiated networks. Our portfolio ensures that AI and GenAI workloads can run seamlessly on operator networks, offering the speed, reliability and latency performance these use cases require.
We’re helping operators turn these network capabilities into new revenue streams, serving AI-driven industries and consumers alike.
Paving the way for 6G
Looking ahead, AI-native 6G will take this further with AI-based air interfaces and context-aware sensing, moving from automated networks to truly cognitive ones. The idea is that AI will not just support the network – it will be the network.
At Ericsson, we’re defining how future networks will learn, reason and adapt autonomously – from AI-based air interfaces that optimise themselves to context-aware sensing and AI-assisted positioning. We are already exploring these architectures, combining digital twins, reinforcement learning and neuromorphic computing to make networks intelligent by design.
Our journey toward 6G networks is grounded in deep, long-term research and innovation. Our AI and R&D centers across the globe collaborate with universities, startups and operators to co-create and test next-generation network technologies. We move ideas from early explorative research through ecosystem engagement, trials and product development all the way to commercial rollout. This ensures every innovation is not just theoretical but ready for real-world deployment.
This work builds on our core AI research pillars – trustworthy AI, AI in control, distributed intelligence, AI infrastructure, GenAI and cognitive networks. Tying it all together is Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) – our framework to manage the full AI lifecycle from experimentation to deployment.
This end-to-end research approach ensures that we continue to lead not only in 5G but also in the evolution toward AI-native 6G networks.
Reinventing to lead
The journey from telco to techco isn’t just a strategy – it’s a fundamental reinvention of how companies create value. It’s about transforming networks into intelligent, automated, AI-native platforms that power digital societies, businesses and communities.
Across Africa, operators are already taking bold steps, embracing cloud, automation and partnerships to redefine what’s possible. At Ericsson, we’re proud to be a trusted partner on this journey, enabling our customers to scale innovation, drive efficiency and unlock new growth opportunities across every layer of the network and enterprise. Together, we’re not just connecting Africa – we’re empowering it to lead the digital future.
