Automating network architecture at TELUS:
The journey to building Canada’s digital future
Tim Fell, Vice President of Networking Technology and Services and Brian Lakey, Vice President of Service Reliability Center at TELUS on transforming the Canadian telecom landscape.
It’s a pivotal time in the telecom industry, where the convergence of technological advancements and evolving customer expectations calls for a transformative shift in network architecture.
ELUS is laying the foundation for a more agile, innovative, secure and future-ready telecommunications landscape in Canada by embedding AI and large-scale automation, with the goal of enabling a highly autonomous network that provides uninterrupted connectivity, delivers personalised experiences, continuously optimises network traffic, rapidly adapts to unexpected changes, and automatically detects and resolves issues.
Here to tell us more about TELUS’ strategies for building Canada’s digital future in this exclusive Q&A are Tim Fell, Vice President, Networking Technology
and Services and Brian Lakey, Vice President, Service Reliability Center.
Can you tell us about TELUS’ journey to build a robust network automation ecosystem?
Tim Fell
TELUS is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and cloud technology to elevate customer experiences and enhance the reliability, speed and scalability of our networks.
It’s a journey we proudly started many years ago, aiming for zero delays, zerotouch interactions and zero disruptions through five stages — from reactive to fully autonomous — inspired by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
To help drive this transformation, we’ve developed an internal ecosystem to accelerate automation across the business. Built on top of our cloudified network, it allows us to seamlessly integrate technology like generative AI (GenAI) and advance new initiatives. For example, in 2024, we successfully stood up an innovative 5G network slicing proofof-concept that enabled smooth payment transactions at one of the largest motor racing events in Canada.
My vision, in the coming years, is end-to-end automation that requires minimal intervention for managing
our networks. That’s why we’re actively exploring all the ways automation can meet the current and future needs of our business — making strides in integrating self-configuring, selforganising, self-optimising and selfhealing features.
Brian Lakey
We’re on our way to achieving level four of TM Forum’s Autonomous Networks maturity model, representing a fully autonomous network that demonstrates cognitive capabilities and learns from its environment to make decisions. Fault management and self-healing capabilities are a top
priority for me, enabling our networks to recover or adapt to failures and unexpected scenarios like climate events and solve problems accordingly. We always embed ‘reliability by design’ and standardisation into our architecture and change processes to help simplify automation and build resilient solutions with fail-safes in place right from the start. This helps us deploy changes gradually, minimise disruptions and uphold our commitment to putting customers first.
How
is TELUS automating network management, monitoring and operations?
Tim Fell
We’re fully embracing the responsible integration of GenAI, LLMs and machine learning across TELUS, working better, smarter and faster to
“We’re fully embracing the responsible integration of GenAI, LLMs and machine learning across TELUS, working better, smarter and faster to benefit our team members, customers and business”
Tim Fell, Vice President of Networking Technology and Services
benefit our team members, customers and business.
I’m particularly proud of the set of internal GenAI tools we’ve launched, inspiring more than 50,000 team members of all skill sets and backgrounds to experiment with ways the technology can help boost productivity and creativity in their everyday work. This includes automating routine tasks and supporting decision-making. For example, using GenAI, our operations team can generate answers to network-related questions — streamlining troubleshooting processes, optimising resources and enhancing operational efficiency.
In addition, to enable the rapid deployment of services while remaining adaptable to changing network demands, we’re leveraging GenAI
to assist with automating network configuration and orchestration, particularly within our 5G networks.
By combining machine learningbased analytics, GenAI and LLMs, we’re developing intelligent systems for issue identification, diagnosis, root-cause analysis and 360-degree observability so we can address silent network failures before they impact our customers. We’re also integrating machine learning to support network traffic forecasting, improving our ability to understand traffic patterns, manage resources and ensure our networks are running smoothly during times of high traffic.
Brian Lakey
Our machine learning models leverage large amounts of network data to quickly identify outages and root causes, allowing for quicker resolution. We’re also using the data to improve
service performance and predict maintenance needs by analysing past trends and creating self-healing networks that automatically take corrective actions, such as rerouting traffic or adjusting settings. We’re using LLMs to assist with filtering data as well as for change, problem and incident management.
“Our machine learning models leverage large amounts of network data to quickly identify outages and root causes, allowing for quicker resolution”
Brian Lakey,
Vice President of Service Reliability Center
Part of our strategy includes partnerships with technology leaders like Juniper Networks, which has a clear industry advantage through the advanced AI, LLMs and machine learning capabilities in its solutions. We’re currently working on nextgen applications and infrastructure in the realm of automation — from enhancing customer experience to wifi in the cloud — to be deployed in the coming years.
What are the benefits of introducing this type of automated network ecosystem? How do these efforts lead to improved performance and efficiency?
Tim Fell
An automated network ecosystem allows us to meet rapidly evolving customer needs and differentiate
“Part of our strategy includes partnerships with technology leaders like Juniper Networks, which has a clear industry advantage through the advanced AI, LLMs and machine learning capabilities in its solutions”
Rise above network complexity.
Discover the AI-Native Network. Visit Juniper.net.
ourselves as a trusted business partner without having to completely rebuild our existing infrastructure. We’re offering the latest and greatest in network technology and delivering best-in-class experiences that stand the test of time.
For example, the dynamic nature of network traffic — especially during large-scale events like the Mike Tyson and Jake Paul boxing match, which peaked at 65m concurrent streams on Netflix in November, 2024 — means that operators need to build solutions that ensure customers remain connected. This is one area where an autonomous
network would be able to seamlessly handle sudden traffic spikes by dynamically allocating resources in real-time, maintaining a consistent customer experience even when the network faces heavy and unpredictable bandwidth demands. We’re taking this approach further in anticipation of the growing trend of live-streaming events, such as for the FIFA World Cup taking place in Canada in 2026.
Brian Lakey
We’re elevating the role and agency of team members and removing human error wherever possible.
Rather than having the majority of our network team’s time focused on day-to-day operational tasks, our goal is to empower them to embrace higher levels of expertise and human intelligence — helping innovation thrive.
At the same time, by reducing the number of mistakes and speeding up our ability to test and perform changes, we can launch better services and significantly improve performance. When we prioritise
time and efficiency, we can redirect our brainpower to focus more on strategic growth and lead in network technology not only in Canada, but around the world.
From its global-best technology and commitment to putting customers first, to its passion to drive social change, TELUS is helping make the world a better place for generations to come.
Learn more at telus.com.
ADDED VALUE
Tim Fell
I’m interested in energy management and, in particular, how the next generation of networks can enhance energy efficiency because we’re able to scale down our resources so much. Applying this into my personal life and inspired by TELUS’ commitment to create a greener network, I’m exploring solar energy options for my home. I’m also learning more about the TM Forum’s approach to autonomous networks and automation, with the goal to draw from the rich insights and learnings that come out of a global industry alliance.
Brian Lakey
I’m interested in how advancements in technology remove barriers and make it easier for individuals and companies to innovate and solve realworld problems. There’s a huge community of innovators and collaborators online, beyond established industry forums. It’s the digital Medici Effect with a global scope. I’m amazed at the creativity people have to solve problems and the degree they share online has a multiplicative effect on society. Low-cost connectivity, computing and sensors are powerful foundations to build upon. It’s a great time to be a problem solver and tinkerer.
Looking ahead…
Brian Lakey
I enjoy attending industry forums like Mobile World Congress (MWC) and the TM Forum to learn how service providers and suppliers are advancing technology in our sector. Vendor events like Google Next, ServiceNow Knowledge, Juniper AI-Native and IBM Think provide the opportunity to learn about specific vendor products and customer implementations while building personal relationships and collaboration opportunities. Offline, I still read the TM Forum documentation and articles on automation.
Tim Fell
I’m also excited about the MWC lineup of events in 2025. Our team is plugged in with various network and cloud-evolution organisations and I look forward to learning with my colleagues across the industry this year — accelerating progress in our networks.
