Terence Wong

Telco GPUaaS: Trend or Fad? Everyone in telecom wants a piece of the AI gold rush. GPU-as-a-Service appears to be one of the tickets: a market projected to reach $50–70 billion by 2032. But let’s be real, telcos won’t beat AWS, Azure, or CoreWeave at their own game. The only shot telcos have is where physics and politics collide. Physics, because no hyperscaler can place compute closer to the user than thousands of telco central offices and cell sites. Politics, because governments and industries under strict regulation want sovereign AI clouds that hyperscalers can’t deliver under U.S. law. The obstacles are brutal. A single H100 GPU eats up to 1000 watts, turning racks into 15kW furnaces; most telco sites can’t handle it. Running an edge cloud isn’t running a network; it demands Kubernetes, DevOps, and automation across thousands of nodes. Security? Try defending thousands of street-level attack surfaces. And unless utilization clears 70%, the economics collapse. So is this a fad? No. The demand is real and permanent. But it’s not a simple way to enter the market. For telcos, GPUaaS is a narrow, yet defensible, play in ultra-low latency inference and sovereign computing. Get it right, and it’s a new growth engine. Get it wrong, and it’s another missed decade. Full breakdown here: https://lnkd.in/gBSYYXw7

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Head of Telenor Asia, Jon Omund Revhaug, recently spoke with Thai Rath Money about Telenor’s 25-year journey in shaping Thailand’s telecom landscape — from pioneering affordable connectivity to accelerating digital modernisation.   In this exclusive interview to mark Telenor's 25 year anniversary in Thailand, he shares how Telenor remains committed to advancing the country's digital economy. He also highlights the strategic significance of the True-dtac merger, which enables True Corporation to build secure infrastructure and deploy new technologies like AI to enhance customer experience.    📰 Full interview with Thai Rath Money (in Thai): https://lnkd.in/grENqcv9

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🔴 Latest and Final on SK Telecom Breach On July 4, Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT released its official report. SK Telecom failed to detect and respond to years of ongoing intrusion, despite warning signs since 2022, leading to the exfiltration of 27 million subscriber records. Financial impact of the breach: 🔻$587M revenue loss tied to breach-related costs. 🔻$513M committed to five-year security investment. Here are some key points on what happened: 1️⃣ Malware first entered in Aug 2021 via a system management server. 2️⃣ Attackers used plaintext credentials to move across internal servers. 3️⃣ Over time, 33 malware types (e.g., BPFDoor, CrossC2, TinyShell) were deployed across the network. 4️⃣ On April 18, 2025, attackers exfiltrated 9.82 GB of data, including IMSI numbers and USIM-linked information for 27 million subscribers. Organizational and Governance Failures: 🔸Security responsibilities were fragmented between IT and network teams, with poor coordination. 🔸Early warning signs in 2021–2022 were missed, not escalated and never reported appropriately. 🔸Security spending was insufficient for an organization of this scale. In summary, I’ll quote one CISO from a major telecom group: “If cybersecurity isn’t a board-level concern, it won’t get the budget, the ownership, or the priority it needs. And this isn’t just a telecom issue - it applies to any large organization… and to smaller ones too.” 🧐 What’s your opinion - how would you define the root cause of this breach? #CyberSecurity #TelecomSecurity #DataBreach #IncidentResponse #CISO #BoardLevelSecurity #APTattack #5GSecurity #SecurityGovernance

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Stop Bundling ChatGPT. Some Telcos Are Building the AI Economy. While some Telcos call it “innovation” to bolt a free ChatGPT subscription onto mobile plans, a group of 53 telcos is taking a far more serious route: positioning themselves inside the AI value chain where real economic gravity sits. I’ve tracked their moves across 5 concrete arenas: (1) sovereign GPU “AI factories,” (2) telco-native large language models, (3) AI-RAN and edge autonomy, (4) enterprise AI cloud platforms, and a small but strategic (5) device layer. The shift is tangible and creates more than 60 specifc projects! Deutsche Telekom is building a Germany-based AI gigafactory with NVIDIA and Brookfield, designed to anchor sovereign compute for national and enterprise AI workloads. Singtel, via its Nxera unit, is using ASEAN data centers as a GPU-as-a-Service backbone, making in-region AI capacity a commercial product rather than a press release. Telefonica is wiring GPUs into central offices to run anomaly detection, traffic forecasting, and model inference at the edge, cutting latency and reducing SLA breaches. Fastweb MIIA, trained on an in-country DGX SuperPOD, shows why controlling both compute and weights matters: you can tune on local data, enforce residency, and drop per-token costs. These Telcos moved beyond buying customer chatbots. They are making capital-intensive bets on compute, models, and edge fabrics; the assets that decide who captures value when AI stops being a demo and becomes infrastructure. I’ve mapped more than 60 cases. A more detailed breakdown in my latest newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gP_3Yn5y

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What happens when your BSS doesn’t just process data… but actually thinks? Imagine a platform where: • Customer interactions can be predicted, recommendations are highly tailored and explainable, • Campaigns can be simulated and tested before launch, • AI agents work around the clock, taking safe, autonomous actions across domains, • New AI capabilities can be built in minutes without coding. This isn’t a concept. It’s here! Read our latest article on Developing Telecoms to discover how Agentic AI and Digital Twins are redefining customer engagement for the AI-native era! Click to read: https://lnkd.in/dak74Ynf #etiya #developingtelecoms #agenticai #digitaltwin

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📡 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦 𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬: 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐒𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐇𝐮𝐛𝐬 🔋🌐 Telecom towers have long been the backbone of mobile communication — delivering 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, and preparing for 6G. But their role is quickly evolving into something much bigger and smarter. In the near future, telecom towers will transform into multi-purpose smart infrastructure nodes, enabling a wide range of services beyond connectivity: ✅ Security & Surveillance Equipped with high-resolution cameras and sensors, towers can enhance public safety and monitor critical infrastructure in real time. ✅ Environmental Monitoring Towers can host sensors to measure air quality, temperature, humidity, and even detect early signs of natural disasters — turning them into frontline guardians of our environment. ✅ Smart Mobility With drone charging pads, towers can become enablers of autonomous aerial operations for logistics, emergency services, and surveillance. And with EV charging stations, they can support the growing demand for sustainable transportation. ✅ Edge Computing & IoT Management Towers can serve as localized computing hubs, managing data from thousands of IoT devices and enabling faster, smarter decisions closer to the user. ✅ Passive Infrastructure for Mission-Critical Networks Towers can serve as shared infrastructure to support mission-critical communication systems for emergency services, utilities, and public safety — reducing deployment costs while improving resilience and nationwide coverage. As we build toward a smarter, more connected future, telecom towers will no longer just be about coverage — they’ll be about capability, sustainability, and security. Let’s start viewing them not as passive structures, but as platforms for innovation. 🚀

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Mythbusters: Telco Edition Our Telco industry sometimes is shaped not just by technology, but by the narratives we keep repeating. The problem is that many of these narratives have hardened into myths, recycled in boardrooms, policy papers, and investor decks, even when the evidence says otherwise. These myths matter as they guide billions in CAPEX, distort spectrum policy, and frame investor expectations. The result has been flat ARPUs, shrinking margins, and a cycle of misplaced bets. In Mythbusters- Telco Edition, I analyze ten of the most persistent cases: 1. More G = More Revenue 2. Telcos Are Utilities, So They’re Safe 3. Exposing the Network = Building a Platform 4. Spectrum Auctions Are Pure Gains for Governments 5. 5G = Instant Revolution 6. Consumers Care About Gs 7. 6G Will Fix What 5G Didn’t 8. FWA Is the 5G Killer App 9. Private 5G Networks Are the Telco Saviors 10. Open RAN Slashes Costs Full breakdown of this story here: https://lnkd.in/gybPb6Kq

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It is becoming increasingly apparent that satellite communications pave the way for uninterrupted connectivity no matter the geographical concerns. In Indonesia, especially, next-generation technologies like LEO can accelerate digital inclusion and support the growing demand for connectivity. Our Group CEO, Antoine Veillon shared his insights about hybrid systems and network management solutions with Satellite Evolution Group. Read more about Indonesia’s evolving communications landscape: https://lnkd.in/dy_XV6CC #IECTelecom #satelliteitup #satellite #satcom #hybrid #Indonesia #communication #connectivity #stayconnected

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