Ep 150 - 6G is different. AI is why.

Every ten years, telcos have to decide whether to move to the next G. The business case has always been based on usage, capacity, and a revenue *forecast*. That’s because the one number that should drive the decision—what each cell actually earns—has been out of reach… until now. In this special What’s Up with Totogi episode, I share the keynote I delivered at TelecomTV’s AI-Native Telco Forum in Düsseldorf. In it, I cover how AI finally makes that number visible, how one operator in Bolivia is using the Totogi Ontology to rank every site by the profit it earns, and how AI is changing the way telcos can make the 6G call. **Listen now to hear:** - Why 6G will be decided differently than every G before it \[02:53]; - The two numbers every tower has—and why your systems show you only ONE \[03:23]; - Where telco’s most sophisticated capital decision is being made right now \[04:18]; and - Why Telstra, Swisscom, and Verizon are each building the same thing—separately \[08:23]. **Links and Resources:** - Watch the video version of my talk. - Read my blog, The first G with AI in the room, which reinforces the case I make here. - Listen to my conversation with Mark Düsener, Swisscom’s chief technology and information officer, who I mentioned on stage. Savvy operators are already building telco-wide semantic consistency to replace their legacy estate. - Hear my conversation with Mark Sanders, Telstra’s chief architect and head of autonomous networks and AI enablement, who argues that operators need a shared language: an ontology of how a telco actually works. - Tune into my episode with Stefan Pongratz, vice president of RAN and telecom CapEx research at Dell’Oro Group, for the hard numbers under the biggest capital decision this industry makes. - Dig into three Dell’Oro Group reports (paywalled) about on where telco CapEx goes from here: - Telecom Capex Report (March 2026) - 6G Advanced Research Report (October 2025) - Telecom Capex Report (September 2025) - Explore TM Forum’s Autonomous Networks framework and its "road toward Level 4," the standards the Totogi Ontology is built on. The map can rebuild itself every night against a moving target instead of dying like every data-dictionary project before it. - Study the Verizon playbook on building an AI context platform at enterprise scale, How to Build an AI Context Platform at Enterprise Scale (Verizon), published through Gartner. Gartner forecasts up to 80% more accurate agents at up to 60% lower cost. - Wondering which of your sites actually earn their next-G upgrade? See how the Totogi Ontology builds a live P&L for every cell and ranks them by the profit each one makes, so you invest by revenue instead of raw traffic. - Catch me with VIVA Bolivia CEO Ryan Alvarez at TM Forum’s Innovate Americas in Dallas on October 6, where we get concrete about the next-G upgrade calls that VIVA is weighing right now. - Salar de Uyuni. You’ve seen it before. It’s the blinding white salt flat where Kylo Ren squares off against Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Red dust kicks up under Kylo’s boots, but never under Luke’s, because Luke isn’t really there. That salt flat is in Bolivia: the largest on Earth, and home to the operator in this talk. Don’t be Kylo Ren, swinging at a ghost. Use AI to see what’s actually there: the profit on every tower. - Check out this episode on our YouTube channel. - You can find the episode transcript here. Wanna talk AI and public cloud? Telco execs, set up a meeting with our team to learn how to tap the immense business value they can bring.  **Follow DR:**  - Have an idea for a Telco in 20 podcast guest or topic? Send it in! - Want to sponsor a podcast? Let us know. - Follow DR on X @TelcoDR The Telco in 20 podcast is ranked in the top 5% of all podcasts globally by Listen Notes! 🎉 We’ve won 2026, 2025, and 2024 Hermes Creative Awards, and 2025 and 2024 MarCom Awards. We are also recognized as a TeckNexus Top 12 Telco and Tech Podcast, Forrester Top 100 Channel Podcast and Feedspot Top 10 Telecom Podcast. If you enjoy the podcast, would you leave us a review? It takes seconds to do in your app and really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. And I love reading your feedback and reviews **This week’s guest:** Danielle Rios (DR) is the founder and CEO of TelcoDR and Totogi, and host of the Telco in 20 podcast.  **Podcast Credits:** - Executive Producer and Host: Danielle Rios, TelcoDR - Senior Producer: Lindsay Grubb, TillCo Media - Senior Editor/Brand Manager: Alisa Jenkins, Springboard Marketing - Audio Editor: Andrew Condell - Supervising Producer: Amanda Avery - Associate Producer: Kriselda Dionisio - Music: Dyami Wilson