Broadband Forum Attempts to Standardise How ISPs Integrate AI
The Broadband Forum, which is an industry-driven global standards development organisation, has begun a new industry-led initiative that aims to equip internet providers with “high-level guidance and a holistic vision” of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be implemented into their networks.
The ‘AI in Broadband Networks‘ project, which initially and perhaps unusually seems to be entirely backed by Chinese companies (CAICT, China Mobile, China Unicom, Huawei, and ZTE Corporation), intends to outline a framework for internet providers to better develop their services-led broadband networks to align with AI trends, as well as to identify real use cases and gaps.
The work will detail how the likes of AI agents, such as metahuman for “intelligent user support“, can be deployed in broadband networks and enable natural human-computer interactions. It will also advise how the network can support the quality requirements of AI enabled intelligent applications, such as AI training/inferencing.
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The report will also discuss how to leverage AI for autonomous networks, including identifying and addressing network faults, predictive maintenance, and energy consumption tuning. The goal is to help ISPs offer intelligent solutions for improved network performance, reliability, and efficiency. Equipment manufacturers will also be provided with guidance on how to incorporate AI into their products.
Hai Ding, Fixed Access Network and Home Networking Expert at China Unicom, said:
“In the long-term, by embracing AI-driven approaches, BSPs can enjoy savings, see a faster time to new revenue, and deliver new applications and services to their customers. The new project aims to offer a strategic insight and provide guidance on the additional value that AI for broadband networks can create for the service provider.”
We’re not sure how this will go down with western operators and governments, many of which seem to be increasingly sceptical of any Chinese involvement in fixed and mobile broadband networks, although hopefully we’ll see more input or leadership from western network operators in this field as the project progresses.
The first phase of the project is set to be finalised by Spring 2026.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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So we can have a standardised AI chatbot to say “have you turned it off and on again”.
Sorry had to be the first to get that joke in
More seriously, what would be useful is for infrastructure providers (Openreach et al) to provide MCP integration to their systems to report what capability is available at a location, current operating status, raise fault tickets and change requests, etc. and for ISPs to report operating status etc., for use by AI agents (“agentic”) to support investigations and take actions.
Not sure I would want AI agent or MCP API in routers–just increases the attack surface of a device that isn’t always the most secure.
Several other European countries are now in the process of catching up with the USA in banning Chinese network infrastructure from critical networks. This topic should fall into the same or even higher threat category.