MC EXCLUSIVE American telecom company Mavenir bets big on India, ramps up AI push amid Open RAN reset

Pardeep Kohli, President and CEO of Mavenir [Photo: Mavenir]

US-based telecom software company Mavenir is doubling down on India as both a key growth market and its largest global innovation hub, even as it sharpens its pivot toward AI-led telecom software following last year’s financial restructuring.

“We are investing a lot in India,” Mavenir CEO Pardeep Kohli said in an interaction at the Mobile World Congress. “Close to 70–80 percent of our workforce is in India. We have nearly 3,000 employees there, and we continue to bring in new talent and upskill existing teams in AI.”

India is not just a back-office base for the company but central to its product development and execution strategy. Mavenir works with Vodafone Idea on packet core and IMS deployments and has recently announced new software solutions with Bharti Airtel.

Kohli said India’s scale, linguistic diversity and cost dynamics make it a unique opportunity. “If you can deliver at the right cost and operate at high volumes, India becomes a very attractive market. The diversity of languages and use cases also makes it an ideal testbed for AI-led telecom applications,” he said.

AI at the core of the strategy

Following its $1.3 billion debt recapitalisation and $300 million in fresh financing last year, Mavenir has shifted focus away from hardware-led Open RAN ambitions toward software, automation and AI.

“Hardware was always a means to an end. The real value lies in the applications that run on top,” Kohli said.

The company is embedding AI across its network stack, particularly in voice and messaging — areas where it already serves over 500 million users globally.

Kohli believes AI in telecom is fundamentally about simplifying human interaction. “If you can understand intent across languages and execute it accurately, that’s powerful,” he said, pointing to India’s 22 official languages and hundreds of dialects as an example of the complexity AI must handle.

Mavenir is developing what it calls an “intent orchestrator” — designed to interpret user commands across languages and industries. The aim is to help telecom operators move beyond pure connectivity and offer AI-driven services that reduce costs and create new revenue streams.

“In previous technology cycles, much of the value shifted to application providers. The question now is whether telecom operators can reclaim some of that value through AI,” Kohli said.

Open RAN: Slower than expected, but not over

On Open RAN, Kohli acknowledged that global momentum has been slower than initially anticipated.

“The idea was to reduce reliance on one or two proprietary vendors by bringing multiple players together. But integration complexity increased costs,” he said.

He added that if AI-enabled automation had matured earlier, Open RAN adoption might have been faster, as integration challenges could have been mitigated.

Still, he believes the shift toward open architectures is inevitable over time, even if it takes a few more years.

Navigating geopolitics

With increasing geopolitical tensions and calls in Europe for greater technological independence, Kohli struck a pragmatic note.

“No one can build everything independently. Semiconductors, memory, AI silicon — these are global supply chains,” he said. “Technology ecosystems remain interconnected.”

The road ahead

Mavenir currently serves over 300 telecom operators globally, supporting networks that reach more than 3.5 billion people.

Its priorities this year are clear: deepen AI integration across telecom networks, help operators reduce operational costs through automation, and enable new revenue opportunities beyond connectivity.

For India specifically, Kohli sees 2026 and 2027 as potentially stronger years as operators increasingly focus on AI-driven services such as spam control, automation and advanced core capabilities.

“We are among the most innovative players in the core software space,” he said. “We certainly hope to see more opportunities going forward.”