TM Forum’s Innovation Hub now open to all Members

The Innovation Hub is building on the success of its pilot phase and opening its physical and virtual doors to all TM Forum Members.

Launched as a pilot in 2023, and hosted by Jio at the Reliance Corporate Park in Mumbai, India, the Innovation Hub was created to address TM Forum Members' need to work together intensively to solve practical and technical challenges.

Since its inception, the Innovation Hub has played a critical role in advancing TM Forum’s work on the Open Digital Architecture (ODA), AI and Autonomous Networks (AN).

“The Innovation Hub allows TM Forum Members to accelerate the use of ODA components and Open APIs so that they can build enterprise grade software solutions, while allowing their employees to gain new skills within a highly innovative and fast-paced environment,” according to Aaron Boasman-Patel, Vice-President, Innovation, TM Forum. "It complements our existing Catalyst program, where telcos and their partners test proofs of concept that lead to new products, services and ways of working.”

As the diagram below illustrates, both the Innovation Hub and Catalysts are part of TM Forum’s wider Innovation Engine, which also includes NexTech, in-person Hackathons, and Innovation Pioneer Projects, a recent example of the latter is work to demonstrate and advance high-value use cases for level 4 autonomous networks.

Success to date

Founding Innovation Hub Members, which include Accenture, Deutsche Telekom, Google Cloud, Jio, Microsoft, Orange, Telenor, T-Mobile and Vodafone, have already collaborated to address specific challenges around interoperability and knowledge sharing.

Their work includes the creation of a reference implementations of an ODA Canvas, and associated services, on which ODA Components will run. A beta version of the Canvas was showcased at DTW24 – Ignite in June and will be launching for general availability in January 2025.

Members also developed TM Forum AIVA, a self-serve tool utilizing GenAI and a telco-specific Large Language Model to enable users to search and interact with the vast library of TM Forum content and assets.

Commitment to solving industry challenges

The next phase of the Innovation Hub will enable a deeper level of commitment from participating members. Participants will need to evidence their alignment with the Innovation Hub’s goals and commit a minimum of two full-time resources for the duration of an entire project.

Innovation Hub projects will be structured into three project categories:

• Core projects build on the work being by TM Forum and our Members around the three key missions: Composable IT & Ecosystems, Autonomous Networks, and Data & AI
• Adjacent projects look beyond the Telco industry, exploring opportunities in new and emerging sectors and markets
• Transformational projects focus on harnessing the potential of disruptive technologies such as quantum computing and edge computing to reshape the industry's landscape

Expert guidance

TM Forum’s support infrastructure underpins each project, enabling access to a dedicated cloud development environment, project management and technical support. Support also includes access to ODA assets to ensure future interoperability of solutions that can be deployed across the industry.

Members can join existing projects or start their own. The multi-company collaboration program enables participating members to collaborate at speed and utilize dedicated resources to create practical solutions for immediate business impact. Find out how to join an Innovation Hub project or submit a proposal for a new project.