LIVE FROM MWL UNWRAPPED: Recently appointed chair of the AI-RAN Alliance Alex Jinsung Choi (pictured) pointed to continued momentum around the industry group among the operator community, with SK Telecom among the new recruits joining founding companies T-Mobile US and SoftBank Corp as members.

Choi said the organisation has already attracted close to 50 members, including four operators, and he is confident that number will increase rapidly in the future.

Indeed, one of the new members, SK Telecom, is where Choi spent the best part of five years, serving as EVP and CTO. Today, he is a Principal Fellow at SoftBank.

Although not directly mentioned by Choi in the Unwrapped interview, US MVNO Boost Mobile (running over Dish Network’s open RAN network) is thought to be the fourth operator member and is listed on the AI-RAN Alliance’s website as a member.

Founded at MWC Barcelona 2024 by major telecoms and technology players, the alliance is beginning to make its mark, with Choi being appointed as chair in August.

Choi explained the group will use its growing list of members’ collective expertise to advance research and innovation in three areas: AI-for-RAN to improve spectral efficiency; AI-and-RAN to optimise infrastructure and AI-on-RAN to deploy AI services at the edge and provide new services.

Revenue base stations
Choi also spoke of wider advancements around AI RAN, addressing a partnership between SoftBank and Nvidia announced last week.

In addition to building an AI supercomputer using Nvidia’s new Blackwell chips, the two companies are working specifically on AI-RAN and the development of a new telecoms network landscape that can run AI and 5G workloads at the same time.

Interestingly, the companies claim these advancements can turn base stations into revenue generating assets, forecasting operators can earn around $5 from AI inference from every $1 of capex they invest in the new infrastructure.

Choi said he could not speak of the specifics and was a little bit cautious abound the numbers being thrown around. However, he confirmed that by integrating “AI capabilities into the base station through AI RAN, operators can transform these traditionally cost-centric assets into versatile, revenue generating platforms”.

Replays of all Unwrapped interviews this week will be available at: https://www.mobileworldlive.com/unwrapped/the-5g-evolution/