Ahead of DTW Ignite 2026 in Copenhagen, Executive Editor Tara Neal speaks with Ryan O'Hanlon, VP of Sales and Marketing at MDS Global on how cloud-native BSS platforms can help operators remain agile, reduce complexity, and unlock new revenue streams in an increasingly interconnected telecom landscape.

In this episode, Ryan also discusses how:

- Composable BSS is becoming a critical enabler of digital telco growth, as many operators are struggling with fragmented "Frankenstein" BSS environments

- Future telco revenues will come from diversified connectivity offerings, including API monetization, Network-as-a-Service, private networks, IoT services, and eSIM

- eSIM is reshaping customer onboarding and digital experiences, but operators still need to improve orchestration and activation processes to deliver seamless user journeys

- MDS Global's strategy centers on creating a unified commercial and operational layer, bringing together connectivity management and BSS capabilities to provide a single source of truth

Learn more at: www.mdsglobal.com

In this episode of The Fast Mode Podcasts, Executive Editor Tara Neal speaks with Susan White, AVP of Strategy of Netcracker following the company's win of the OSS & Automation Leader title at the The Fast Mode Awards.

In this episode, Susan discusses how:

- Challenges around widespread closed-loop automation remain, with organizational structure, data quality, inventory accuracy, and AI governance continuing to slow progress

- Agentic AI is set to radically transform network operations, eventually autonomously detecting, diagnosing, and resolving network issues

- Netcracker's Domain Automation links network operations directly to business outcomes, enabling operators to understand not just faults, but also the affected customers, services, SLAs, and revenue impact.

- The company's Blueprint approach accelerates automation deployment, enabling operators to replicate proven automation frameworks across multiple network domains and significantly reduce implementation times

- Low Earth Orbit satellite networks are emerging as a major growth area for domain automation, driven by increasing complexity, stringent SLA requirements, and the convergence of 5G and NTN

Ahead of DTW Ignite 2026 in Copenhagen, The Fast Mode's Executive Editor Tara Neal sat down with Vasanth Raju, Head of AI Products at Rakuten, to discuss how leading digital organizations are moving beyond AI experimentation to deliver measurable business outcomes.

In this episode, Vasanth explores how:

- Telcos are at a crossroads, with declining ARPU despite growing data usage, forcing operators to rethink their business models and how AI can create measurable value

- AI should not be treated as a bolt-on feature, and must be built into products and operations from the ground up to deliver scalable business outcomes

- Rakuten is deploying AI at scale across its ecosystem, expecting over US$29 million in cost savings from AI-powered customer service tools in 2026 alone

- Competitive advantage comes from a strong data foundation—unified data, a single customer identity, and breaking down silos enable AI to deliver meaningful results

- AI must be viewed as an amplifier, and the real differentiator is its ecosystem, loyalty loop, and unique customer data that connect services and drive higher customer value

As fraud escalates and digital interactions grow more complex, businesses are under mounting pressure to verify who they're talking to — without making the experience harder for legitimate customers. Network-powered solutions are emerging as a powerful new layer in the digital trust toolkit, giving enterprises direct access to real-time mobile network intelligence to authenticate users, detect fraud signals, and streamline customer journeys — all invisibly, in the background.

In this episode, Kunal Shukla, SVP & GM, Head of Networks APIs on behalf of Vonage — winner of The Fast Mode's inaugural Digital Identity Innovator award — joins the conversation to explore how network-powered solutions like the Vonage Identity Insights API are redefining what's possible in digital identity.

Kunal also delves into:

• How the team at Vonage feels about winning the inaugural Digital Identity Innovator award
• Why digital identity has reached a critical inflection point now
• What network APIs deliver and how do they offer a better approach to trust and authentication than traditional solutions
• What makes the Vonage Identity Insights API unique, and how do features like SIM Swap detection and Subscriber Match deliver both security and better user experience
• Real-world examples of how developers and enterprises are using the Identity Insights API

Josh Whitehurst, Head of Product at First Orion discusses:

• What’s driving the current “trust crisis” in voice communications, and how we got here
• Why the industry is now moving beyond STIR/SHAKEN and what gaps remain
• What end-to-end authentication means in practice for carriers and enterprises
• How operators like T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, and Vodafone are approaching trusted communications differently today
• How analytics, authentication, and branded identity work together to create trust
• What results companies are seeing when they implement authenticated and branded calling
• How important calling behavior - things like cadence, consent, and timing - is in maintaining trust
• How trust will become a competitive differentiator for operators and enterprises over the next few years

To learn more, visit www.firstorion.com

Martin Rückert, Chief AI Officer at Tallence, discusses:

- Thor Voice AI as a network-native platform that embeds AI directly into telecom voice infrastructure without apps or middleware

- How real-time AI enables live call understanding and responses through speech-to-text, intent recognition, and text-to-speech

- How telcos can use voice AI to automate customer support, enable voice concierge services, and execute real-time tasks during calls

- The importance of carrier-grade reliability, low latency, and operator-controlled deployment for large-scale rollout

- The broader shift toward voice becoming a primary interface for AI-powered, intent-driven telecom services

To learn more, visit www.tallence.com

In this podcast, Ravi Karthik, Chief Growth Officer of ACT Fibernet discusses:

• The company's recent win at The Fast Mode Awards 2025 as AI & GenAI Pioneer
• How the surge in connected devices post-pandemic is reshaping home Wi-Fi demands
• How ACT’s AI-powered Smart Wi-Fi optimizes performance based on devices, usage, and home environments
• The role of edge, collective, and behavioral AI in delivering continuous network improvements
• How improved connectivity is reducing churn and driving upgrades while being offered to all customers

To learn more, visit www.actcorp.in

Martin Rückert, Chief AI Officer at Tallence discusses:

1. The Tallence Knowledge Graph and its core components

2. Operational challenges in today’s telco environments that the Knowledge Graph is designed to solve

3. Telecom domains seeing immediate impact from the Knowledge Graph

4. Key prerequisites for CSPs to successfully deploy and scale a Knowledge Graph

5. How the Knowledge Graph acts as a foundation for AI, specifically in providing the context and explainability that AI systems need

6. How Agentic AI capabilities interact with the Knowledge Graph to move from insight to action

7. Examples where the combination of Knowledge Graph and Agentic AI is already enabling autonomous or semi-autonomous operations in live telco environments

8. The future evolution of this architecture—combining Knowledge Graphs and Agentic AI—to support real-time, intent-driven networks and fully autonomous operations

To learn more, visit www.tallence.com