Artificial Intelligence Applications in Telecommunications and other network industries

Roberto Balmer, Stanford L. Levin and Stephen Schmidt

Telecommunications Policy, 2020, vol. 44, issue 6

Abstract: Artificial intelligence applications in network industries have the potential to reduce network roll-out and operating costs, improve performance, enhance customer service, and support the development and introduction of new services. This paper identifies and analyzes the range of AI applications already in place and those expected to be in place in the near future. After analyzing the applications found in the literature, we have conducted interviews with senior executives responsible for AI in telecommunications, electricity, gas and water companies headquartered in North America and Europe, as well as with suppliers incorporating AI into their equipment. These interviews have provided information on which AI applications are actually being used in these network industries and which are expected to be implemented in the future. While some of these AI applications, like predictive maintenance, have already been implemented today by most operators, more complex applications, such as traffic management AIs for 5G, are being considered by only a few large operators. Finally, the paper explores the consequences of AI for regulation. At the least, regulators will need to understand AI in order to determine if AI applications raise regulatory concerns. At this point, however, as AI becomes increasingly integrated into network operations, regulatory issues are only beginning to emerge.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence; Machine learning; Telecoms; Network industries; Economics; Regulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308596120300690
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:telpol:v:44:y:2020:i:6:s0308596120300690

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30471/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... /30471/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2020.101977

Access Statistics for this article

Telecommunications Policy is currently edited by Erik Bohlin

More articles in Telecommunications Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().