Telenor Recognised for Delivering Customer-Centric 5G Experiences at Scale: A Network API and Monetisation Use Case
by Jane Frances Pajo
We are pleased to share that Telenor, in collaboration with a strong partner ecosystem, has won the Operator Network API Award at FutureNet World 2025 for the best example of an API use case(s) and monetisation. This recognition celebrates our joint efforts in developing a unified private 5G platform, designed to simplify the complexity of 5G for enterprise customers through the power of AI, APIs and automation.
Telenor Group CTO Cathal Kennedy accepting the award
AI-Powered, Intent-Driven Simplicity
In the [Network] Lab we put effort into ensuring that we understand what our customers and collaborators are really looking for when they contact us to explore 5G services. Understanding precisely what you might need as an enterprise customer is a complex task. For this pilot, we wanted to simplify and automate this process. What if we could enable customers to express their needs in natural language, and automatically convert the intent to the right 5G service?
We integrated an AI powered customer portal to the platform to extract customers intents and needs, and managed to successfully convert intent to action by combining the portal with full-stack orchestration of all technology layers. The results? Accelerating service deliveries from hours to minutes.
Enabling future 5G experiences through Open APIs
The joint innovation features five specialized private 5G networks as part of the pilot, demonstrating the potential value propositions of tailored 5G experiences in various industries.
In such a multi-vendor platform, APIs act as bridges for systems integration, enabling different software components such as customer portals, orchestration frameworks and network elements to seamlessly communicate—even when they’re built on different technologies.
From a monetisation viewpoint, network capabilities exposure is an advanced feature that exposes key capabilities such as real-time management of how network resources are allocated to customers. Capability exposure and Open APIs are essential for telcos’ capacity to fuel innovation and downstream adoption, empowering customers and third-party developers to build beyond connectivity services.
An Award-Winning Partner Ecosystem
This win was made possible by the strategic collaboration with 12 ecosystem partners (Airbus, Airolit, Cumucore, Druid Software, Emblasoft, ENEA, i2i Systems, Intel, Nokia, Oracle Communications, Oslo University, Red Hat) who brought in technologies and expertise across six domains: Infrastructure, Network, Intelligence, Cloud, Automation, and Application. Collaborative innovation in multi-vendor ecosystems fuels technological advancement and economic growth by cultivating a dynamic, competitive landscape where all players can introduce disruptive solutions.
Looking Ahead
This award is a testament to what’s possible when innovation meets collaboration. We invite partners, customers and innovators to join us soon in shaping the future of digital society and deliver meaningful impact across industries. The [Network] Lab is in the works, developing into a hub-and-spoke testing environment for real-world experimentation with advanced 5G capabilities.
Read more about the different use cases here:
The Team
Min Xie
Platform Lead
Jane Frances Pajo
Research Scientist
Muhammad Faheem Awan
Research Scientist
Abdelhakim Cherifi
Research Engineer
Ali Esmaeily
Post-Doc Researcher
