TM Forum, the global alliance of telco and tech companies, and Jio, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, held the opening ceremony for the first TM Forum Innovation Hub, located in Mumbai, India.  

The Innovation Hub will focus its first efforts on accelerating the development of Generative AI (Gen AI) Large Language Models (LLM) and Open Digital Architecture to benefit the whole industry.

Leaders from both organisations and representatives from the Innovation Hub Founding Members including Accenture, Deutsche Telekom, Google Cloud, Orange, Telenor, and Vodafone attended the ceremony at the Reliance Corporate IT Park in Navi, Mumbai, where hybrid teams made up of talent from across the telecom and tech industry will collaborate to deliver breakthrough thinking and solutions for the industry’s most pressing challenges.   

Mumbai was selected as the location for the first TM Forum Innovation Hub in recognition of India being the epicenter of global software development talent. Its opening builds on the TM Forum’s long-standing commitment to India – where more than 37,000 active Forum member professionals are based.   

One of the hub’s first focus areas is the application of Generative AI and LLM to priority use cases for telcos, including developing an architecture blueprint to simplify responsible use of generative AI for brownfield telecoms technology landscapes, including the related challenges of security, privacy, accuracy, performance, and scalability. 

Commenting on the opening of the Innovation Hub, Akash Ambani, chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited said, “The TM Forum Innovation Hub is about delivering real-world solutions that will change our industry and there is no better way than to lean on talent from across the industry to solve our existing challenges as well as finding better ways to overcome future obstacles. We are delighted to see the first innovation hub open on our Mumbai campus as I believe Mumbai is the perfect location to foster the innovation needed. This is a really exciting time for Jio, TM Forum, and the wider telecoms industry and we are honoured to be at the heart of this project.”  

The Innovation Hub program was unveiled two months ago at the TM Forum’s annual DTW – Ignite conference in Copenhagen. Founding members Accenture, Deutsche Telekom, Google Cloud, Orange, Reliance Jio, Telenor and Vodafone are all contributing a range of expertise and resources to the hub, including experts, physical space, technology capabilities, and professional services. The first Innovation Hub teams will be made up of staff from these organsations working both physically and virtually.