Telecom’s boldest ideas take center stage in TM Forum Catalyst Awards at Innovate Asia
At Innovate Asia, today, TM Forum celebrated the telecommunication industry’s five most daring, disruptive, and collaborative Catalyst projects.
The Catalyst Awards recognize projects that are experimenting boldly and advancing the industry’s thinking on the most pressing challenges. These are projects that deliver disruptive approaches and show up with a code-first approach – essential for an AI-native and autonomous world.
This year, 18 teams, involving 280 individuals from 76 companies, delivered the largest ever Asia Catalyst showcase with live demos turning architecture into action across all three industry missions: Autonomous Networks, Composable IT and Ecosystems, and AI and Data. These rapid-fire projects progress into commercial products, partnerships and production, including testing and iterating the Forum’s work.
Make AN Level 4 Real won the coveted Best Moonshot Catalyst – Autonomous Networks Trailblazer award, celebrating the most outstanding Level 4 autonomous network innovation. This honor recognizes a breakthrough that delivers a 30% reduction in operational costs through automation. The winning solution demonstrated a high value scenario that meets AN Level 4 criteria with high business impact, setting the foundation for self-optimizing, self-healing, zero-touch networks.
Outstanding Catalyst awards were also presented for:
- Business Gamechanger:
- WINNER: Agentic Intelligence Exchange, an AI-driven platform to unlock new B2B2X revenue from telco data assets.
- AI and Automation:
- WINNER: AI Marketing Brain, empowering communications service providers (CSPs) with AI-driven, real-time marketing decisions to future-proof telecom growth in a data-driven world
- Innovation with Purpose:
- WINNER: Agentic Framework for Unified Networks, human-AI coexistence to rapidly create and deploy digital services across satellite and terrestrial networks.
- Mission Trailblazer:
WINNER: Intelligent Cross-Domain Network Assurance, zero-touch cross-domain ops for AI-powered, error-proof networks.
“Catalyst projects drive change at the heart of the telco industry’s innovation engine. These projects prove what’s possible when our Members collaborate openly on a common vision, experiment boldly, and turn ambition into real-world impact. TM Forum is proud to celebrate all the teams and finalists for their outstanding achievements in driving transformation and shaping the future of connectivity,” said Aaron Boasman-Patel, VP Innovation at TM Forum.
For more than 25 years, the Catalyst program has continuously evolved to stay ahead of emerging industry challenges and opportunities, including breakthroughs in GenAI and Agentic AI. The program, part of TM Forum’s Innovation Engine, brings together thousands of industry professionals and has showcased 76 Catalyst projects involving 249 Member companies at TM Forum events this year alone, including the flagship DTW Ignite.
The Call for Catalysts for DTW Ignite (June 23-25, 2026 in Copenhagen) is now open. TM Forum members are invited to make their submissions before 5 December 2025.
About TM Forum
TM Forum is a global alliance of telco and tech companies, leading the industry in defining the building blocks for new operating models, impactful new partnerships, and advanced software platforms.
TM Forum helps its members unlock the value of data to create nearly endless opportunities for players across the communications ecosystem. At DTW Ignite, Accelerate and Collaboration events, TM Forum provides a platform for industry change-makers to share groundbreaking innovation, market developments, product launches and business transformation journeys.
We are the only industry body to count the world’s top 10 CSPs and all the key hyperscalers as active, strategic members. With over 800 members, we are on a mission to reinvent the telco industry as a vibrant part of the digital landscape – and a driving force in shaping its future. To find out more, visit: tmforum.org.
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Katy Branson
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TM Forum