5G Factor: 5G Sustainability and GenAI Meet

An Assessment of Key 5G-IoT Ecosystem Developments Including 5G Sustainability Market Shapers, Top Sustainability Suppliers, and Vodafone Microsoft GenAI Alliance

In this episode of The 5G Factor, our series that focuses on all things 5G, the IoT, and the ecosystem as a whole, I'm joined by my colleague and fellow analyst, Todd R Weiss, for a look at the top 5G developments and what's going on that caught our eye including a review of the top market shapers in the 5G sustainability realm, why we see Ciena, Cisco, Ericsson, Juniper, and Nokia offer the mobile network portfolios that fulfill the topmost 5G sustainability objectives, and how the new Vodafone Microsoft alliance focused on generative AI, cloud, and digital services can improve Vodafone's customer experience and sustainability profile. 

Our conversation focused on:

5G Sustainability Market Shapers. 5G network equipment providers (NEPs) are prioritizing the fulfillment of their organization-wide sustainability goals. NEPs are making tangible, measurable progress, including attaining science-based targets (SBTs) and developing ways to reduce waste and responsibly managing the lifecycle of their products. We assess how mobile ecosystem suppliers are embedding energy efficiency advances in product design and portfolio development across silicon, software, and systems from inception and throughout the entire lifecycle management in full alignment with energy orchestration and green operations.

Ring of Honor: Top 5G Sustainability NEPs. We identified and reviewed what we believe are the top five network equipment provider 5G sustainability portfolios across the mobile ecosystem today, noting why the players are selected based on our analytical perspective, their ability meeting the top sustainability strategy goals and capabilities, as well as their ecosystem-wide influence in powering ecosystem cooperation and support. The top players who made our Ring of Honor include Ciena, Cisco, Ericsson, Juniper, and Nokia. 

Vodafone and Microsoft - New Ten-Year Alliance Spotlights GenAI: Vodafone and Microsoft formed a ten-year strategic alliance with the topmost objectives of transforming Vodafone's customer experience using Microsoft's generative AI acumen, hyperscale Vodafone's managed IoT connectivity platform, develop new digital and financial services for businesses - especially small/medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Europe and Africa - and overhaul Vodafone's global data center cloud strategy. Vodafone will invest $1.5 billion over the next 10 years in cloud and customer-focused AI services developed in concurrence with Microsoft. We examine why the new Vodafone and Microsoft alliance can broaden their channel influence across the digital ecosystems of Europe and Africa, especially across the opportunity-rich SME realm by using generative AI and hybrid cloud flexibility to uplift the customer experience and improve energy efficiency and sustainability performance across mobile networks, especially within data center environments. Now the partnership can demonstrate the full ecosystem benefits that are emerging from tighter collaboration between telcos and hyperscalers.

Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.

Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.