FROM THE INDUSTRY
The New Realms: Cloud, SDN, AI an Quantum Now we stand on the edge of something even greater. Software Defined Networks, Artificial Intelligence powered Orchestration and Edge compute. The idea that networks can now learn, predict, and heal themselves is no longer fantasy, it is happening. Our backbone is no longer just copper or fibre—it’s software, elastic, scalable. Intelligent and often virtualised. Beyond that, quantum networks. Hollow- core fibres carrying entangled photons through vacuum. Secure, instantaneous communications across impossible distances. The laws of physics bent to our will. It’s still emerging, still being shaped in labs and pilot projects, but it is coming, and it will change everything again. I wonder if those early switchboard operators could have dreamed of this of AI routers and virtualised cores, of fibre-light highways and quantum encryption. Would they even believe it? But perhaps the real question is: What will the next generation look back on and marvel at?
that once stretched wires from coast to coast, with the same daring spirit that changed the course of history. Our work isn’t done yet. Half the world still waits in silence, unconnected. Villages, nations and even continents remain in the dark, still untouched by the promise of modern communication. The gap between the connected and the disconnected continues to grow, and it’s our responsibility to close it. We will build the infrastructure of inclusion, ensuring that every person, no matter where they are, can be part of this new world. We will go to the deserts, the jungles, the islands and the inner cities, places that are often forgotten and left behind. We’ll lay the fibre, raise the towers, launch the satellites, automate networks, aid the simplification of technology and open the ports, building bridges of connectivity to every corner of the Earth. A closing Thought I began this article with a reflection on a humble building. Perhaps you’ve seen one like it: weathered, moss-covered, with the faint remnants of the words “TELEPHONE EXCHANGE” still visible on the brick. Don’t pass by such places too quickly. They may not be grand, but they are far from ordinary. They are quiet monuments, not made of marble or steel, but of meaning. Within these walls, connections were made that shaped the way we live today. From them, we laid the foundation for the world we now know, a world where distance is no barrier, and communication is a bridge between us all. So, let us take a moment to appreciate their legacy. Let us remember how these humble buildings helped form the fabric of our society. And above all, let us continue to build on that foundation, connecting with one another as we move forward.
The People Behind the Progress
In every generation of telecommunications in the UK, the greatest constant has not been the technology, but the people. The thinkers, software and hardware designers, splicers, architects. Commissioning engineers, planners. The ones who walked trenches in rain and snow. The ones who sat through late-night maintenance windows praying the patch would hold. The ones who debugged code at 3.00 am. The ones who picked up the phone when a hospital’s link went down and worked until it was fixed. They are the unsung heroes of modern civilisation. Every email you send, every FaceTime call with a loved one, every bit of news that reaches you in real-time it’s because someone, somewhere, built and maintained the invisible threads that make it possible. We rarely see them. But we owe them everything. The Road Ahead What about the future? We talk about artificial intelligence, quantum networks, and software defined clouds that think faster than we ever could. Let’s not shy away from this frontier, we must move forward with the same boldness
SEPTEMBER 2025 Volume 47 No.3
79
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