Telstra and Ericsson are expanding their collaboration aimed at supporting the telecommunications industry’s shift towards autonomous networks, with a new focus on how network systems can share trusted information and make dependable decisions across different vendors and network domains.
Building on a collaboration announced in October 2025, the companies said the next phase of work will explore common approaches to “network knowledge” intended to improve interoperability and address knowledge silos that can slow progress toward greater network autonomy. The companies said outcomes will be shared with industry bodies, including TM Forum.
As part of the expansion, Telstra and Ericsson will convene and co-lead a joint industry working group covering three areas: developing a common taxonomy for network knowledge and confidence; enabling knowledge exchange and composition across vendors, domains and systems while preserving lineage and trust; and examining how autonomous AI agents can be grounded in trusted knowledge and safety guardrails.
The companies framed the work around what they call a “Knowledge Plane”, described as a formal representation of what a network is, what it should be, and what it is expected to do, including engineering rules, policies and safety guardrails that both people and autonomous systems can use to support intent-based network autonomy.
Telstra Chief Architect Mark Sanders said: “Autonomous networks require more than the automation of individual tasks. They depend on a shared understanding of what the network is, what it is expected to do and how much confidence can be placed in the knowledge supporting each decision. By working with Ericsson on common approaches to knowledge and trusted agency, we can help address these foundational challenges and contribute to the industry’s progress towards more interoperable and dependable network autonomy.”
Ericsson’s Head of Solution Area Business & Operations Support Systems, Mats Karlsson, said: “The evolution towards autonomous networks will require collaboration across the telecommunications industry. Common approaches to knowledge, knowledge exchange and trustworthy AI will be important to enable autonomous capabilities to operate more consistently across domains and technology environments. Our expanded collaboration with Telstra is an opportunity to explore these foundations, share outcomes with the industry and support the development of more open and scalable approaches to network autonomy.”
