• KT Corp. reorgs as it becomes an AI-native telco
• Swisscom launches its B2B AI Platform
• MTN relights its Open RAN fire

In today’s industry news roundup: KT Corp. shuffles its corporate pack as it transforms into an AICT company; Swisscom launches its first wave of enterprise-focused, sovereign AI services; MTN is back on the Open RAN trail in partnership with a slightly mysterious organisation; and more!

KT Corp. is reorganising its operational structure to better position itself for the AI era: In February this year the South Korean operator announced its intention to undertake a “drastic internal reorganisation, recruit talent and expand bold open partnerships” so that it could be “reborn as an AICT company,” with AICT being a combination of AI and ICT (information and communication technology). Now, reports Business Korea, KT is merging its Enterprise Division (which is focused on the needs of business customers) with its Strategy and New Business Division, which is responsible for AI convergence projects. The new division, which will be led by the current head of the Enterprise Division, Ahn Chang-yong, will be responsible for AI and cloud services, from product planning to proposal, order, and execution. In addition, KT’s Consulting Group is to be expanded and renamed the Strategy and Business Consulting Division: It will provide technical consulting support for AICT business opportunities and be responsible for domestic and international partnerships, including the five-year strategic partnership with Microsoft focused on local and international AI, cloud and IT developments that was announced in September. And to simplify the overall group, KT is spinning its media units – IPTV, KT Skylife (satellite TV), KT Studio Genie and Genie Music – out of its Consumer Division to form a separate Media Division. KT’s CEO Kim Young-seop noted: "To evolve and grow rapidly with the goal of becoming a company with the best AICT capabilities, it is important to operate and innovate the organization and personnel rationally. KT will lead the B2B IT market through global cooperation and ensure the safe and stable operation and advancement of the network." The revamp is the latest move by KT to keep pace with its domestic rivals, SK Telecom and LG Uplus, both of which are also pinning their futures, and strategies, on AI-enabled service developments and supporting infrastructure. 

Speaking of LG Uplus… As part of its ongoing revamp to position itself as an AI-native telco, the operator has launched a new marketing campaign positioning itself as a “Growth Leading AX Company” – AX stands for AI transformation – and launched a new AI Agent Promotion Group within its Consumer Division, reports The Global Economic Times.

Swisscom has launched its Swiss AI Platform, which provides sovereign data storage and processing in domestic datacentres, as well as supporting services, for enterprise users. The “modular design gives companies flexible access to Switzerland’s first Nvidia SuperPOD system, as well as platform and application services,” noted the telco in this announcement, adding that it is already working with customers to test initial applications. Those applications include GPU-as-a-service (GPUaaS), an AI Work Hub “designed for data scientists and machine learning engineers who develop and train models and therefore analyse and process large data volumes” and, from spring 2025, a GenAI Studio that “gives companies easy access to generative AI services via API interfaces on the Swiss AI Platform, which they can use to create their own AI solutions”. The launch comes less than a year after Swisscom announced its plan to invest 100m Swiss francs ($113.5m) to build generative AI (GenAI) full-stack supercomputers in Switzerland based on Nvidia technology. Urs Lehner, the head of Swisscom’s enterprise services division, noted: “The Swiss AI Platform is a Swiss solution for the Swiss economy. Sensitive data is in good hands thanks to our powerful, trusted Swiss infrastructure. In addition, our 400 AI and data specialists, working alongside Nvidia’s leading global industry experts, constitute a unique Swiss Center of Excellence, enabling us to support customers with tailored AI solutions.”

Pan-African mobile operator MTN Group has teamed up with the North Virginia, US-based ORAN Development Company (ODC), “to develop and test innovative Open RAN solutions tailored to unique requirements of networks across Africa,” the operator announced. “This collaboration supports MTN Group’s commitment to provide affordable, high-quality telecommunications throughout the continent, with advanced Open RAN architectures enabling greater network flexibility,” added MTN, which has more than 280 million customers across 16 African markets. MTN was one of the most prominent supporters of the Open RAN concept some years back but has not been as prominent in Open RAN circles in recent years, so this development appears to signal a renewed interest in the potential of disaggregated multivendor mobile network systems. To that end, MTN and ODC are to collaborate on joint lab tests and field trials. Matthew Johnson, global head of ODC, stated: “Our collaboration with MTN Group focuses ODC directly on MTN’s unique network needs, enhancing efficiencies while supporting the evolution of next-generation capabilities, silicon, and AI.” That’s all very well, but what is ODC exactly and what is it bringing to the table here? Details about ODC are scarce to say the least, while Johnson, who previously worked at Rakuten Symphony, doesn’t list ODC on his LinkedIn profile, though he has shared a post about the MTN engagement. We hope to shed some light on this in the coming days. 

– The staff, TelecomTV