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Ep 131 – Two takes on telco’s biggest bets for 2026 (Dean Bubley)
Dean Bubley and I dive into MWC26’s biggest themes and explore why operators are at risk of missing out on another major technology shift.
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Ep 132 – Microsoft’s framework for autonomous networks (Rick Lievano)
This week’s guest
Rick Lievano
Chief Technology Officer Worldwide Telecom Industry MicrosoftThe telecommunications industry is heading to MWC Barcelona with a strong desire to skip AI hype in favor of AI proof. Telco executives aren’t looking for more possibilities—they’re demanding real deployments, measurable outcomes, and P&L impact.
For this episode, I’m joined by Rick Lievano, Microsoft’s CTO for the Worldwide Telecommunications Industry. We dive into Microsoft’s vision for network autonomy, real-world deployments delivering breakthrough results, and the barriers holding telcos back from deploying AI agents at scale.
Listen now to hear:
- How Microsoft’s NOA framework automates telco network operations [03:29];
- How T-Mobile built a self-healing network that even responds automatically to hurricanes [09:23];
- What sovereign cloud really means [11:30]; and
- What’s holding back telcos from deploying AI at scale [14:18].
Links and resources
- Learn more about Microsoft’s Network Operations Agent (NOA) Framework for network autonomy and read Microsoft’s white paper on NetAI, the autonomous networking framework powering Azure’s global network operations.
- Watch this video about Microsoft Agent 365, the control plane that helps teams deploy, manage, and secure AI agents to support agentic AI at scale.
- Check out how AT&T deployed 71 generative AI solutions to over 100,000 employees with Azure, reducing customer care resolution time by 33% and processing approximately 9 billion tokens daily.
- Read how SK Telecom used Microsoft Foundry to create AI-native digital experiences that feel more like a lifestyle concierge than a traditional telco app.
- Learn how T-Mobile unified its network data on Azure and built a self-healing network.
- Learn about Bleu in France, where Orange and Capgemini operate a sovereign Azure environment with zero Microsoft access, enabling telcos to run sensitive workloads under strict data residency guarantees.
- Did you know Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates’ has played pickleball for over 50 years, even playing on the original court built by the game’s inventors?
- Did you know DR won the The Minor League Pickleball (MiLP) DUPR16 50+ Nationals? Watch her team, The Austin Ballers, take the top prize!
- Who else is a birder? We talked about my love of birdfeeders. Here is recent video from my Bird Buddy, which I love!
- Want to learn how to scale AI agents with confidence? Come find Team Totogi at MWC26 in Barcelona, running March 2-5. We will be showing off BSS Magic and our telco ontology that manages context at scale. Connect with DR on LinkedIn or X @TelcoDR to set up a time to meet.
- Check out this episode on our YouTube channel.
- You can find the episode transcript here.
Wanna talk AI and public cloud? Telco execs, set up a meeting with our team to learn how to tap the immense business value it can bring.
Guest bio
Rick Lievano is Microsoft’s CTO for the Worldwide Telecommunications Industry. He works with customers and partners in developing telecommunications industry solutions and reference architectures to address the rapidly changing needs of service providers across the globe. He is an enthusiastic participant and speaker in many industry communities, an advocate of industry frameworks and open standards, and holds TM Forum Open Digital Architecture and Business Development Manager Career Certifications. At TM Forum, he is a member of the Composable IT & Ecosystems Mission, overseeing the effective creation and adoption of pragmatic best practices and standards to deliver value to the membership. As a board member at both Mplify Alliance (former MEF Forum) and Linux CAMARA, his contributions drive the industry toward a more connected and efficient digital future. Rick currently leads initiatives to help operators achieve more by infusing agentic artificial intelligence across their business in a secure and responsible manner.
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Podcast credits
- Executive Producer and Host: Danielle Rios, TelcoDR
- Senior Producer: Lindsay Grubb, TillCo Media
- Senior Editor/Brand Manager: Alisa Jenkins, Springboard Marketing
- Audio Editor: Andrew Condell
- Supervising Producer: Amanda Avery
- Associate Producer: Kriselda Dionisio
- Music: Dyami Wilson
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is Microsoft’s NetAI framework and how does it enable network autonomy?
NetAI is Microsoft’s autonomous networking framework that powers Azure’s global network operations. It uses intelligent AI agents to handle network operations tasks like anomaly detection, diagnostics, and repairs. The framework delivers 40% more incident handling capacity, 80% faster root cause analysis, and 25% reduction in time to repair. NetAI is now available to telcos through Microsoft’s Network Operations Agent (NOA) Framework, enabling operators to build self-healing networks that operate at massive scale.
2. How is T-Mobile using AI to create self-healing networks during hurricanes?
T-Mobile partnered with Microsoft Azure to unify its network data estate, processing nearly a petabyte daily and handling over a trillion transactions. It built an AI-driven autonomous network that responds instantly to outages like hurricanes. When cell towers go dark, surviving towers automatically re-tilt antennas, adjust power levels, and stretch coverage to fill gaps—without waiting for engineers. This ensures customers can make emergency calls and contact loved ones when communications matter most.
3. What is the biggest challenge holding telcos back from scaling AI agents?
According to Rick Lievano, Microsoft’s CTO for the Worldwide Telecommunications Industry, the biggest roadblocks are weak AI governance and organizational readiness. IT executives are stopping AI agent deployments until they establish proper control mechanisms. The challenge isn’t building agents—it’s managing them at scale. Microsoft addresses this with Agent 365, which acts as an air traffic control tower for enterprise AI agents, providing centralized governance regardless of where agents originate.
4. How do Danielle Rios and Totogi approach the challenge of managing AI context at scale?
Danielle Rios explains that Totogi’s approach focuses on using a telco-specific ontology as a foundation layer. Rather than having hundreds of agents each guessing what terms like “subscriber” or “churn risk” mean, the ontology establishes one canonical definition that every agent uses. This prevents AI hallucination through semantic consistency and serves as the operating model that tells agents which systems to access and with what constraints. Totogi will showcase BSS Magic and its telco ontology at MWC26 in Barcelona (Hall 2, March 2-5, 2026).
5. What is the difference between Microsoft’s sovereign data centers and standard Azure regions?
Sovereign data centers are built specifically for countries or regions requiring complete control over data jurisdiction. In Microsoft’s sovereign cloud model, all customer data stays within the region and is exclusively operated by in-region personnel. Microsoft announced three types: public sovereign cloud, private sovereign cloud, and national partner cloud. Bleu in France exemplifies this—Orange and Capgemini operate a sovereign Azure environment with zero Microsoft employee access, enabling telcos to run sensitive OSS/BSS and AI workloads under strict data residency guarantees.
6. How is SK Telecom using Microsoft AI to transform customer experiences?
SK Telecom partnered with Microsoft Foundry to build agentic AI workloads that rearchitect how customer interactions flow end-to-end. Rather than just plugging AI into single tasks like call centers, they’re creating multi-step, AI-driven experiences that function more like a digital lifestyle concierge than a traditional telco app. This represents SK Telecom’s evolution into a “techco” by building new AI-native digital experiences that leverage agentic AI capabilities, moving beyond the typical call-center implementations.