In Latin America, mobile operators face a dual challenge: reducing operational costs while staying at the forefront of technological innovation. This is key not only for preparing their networks for an evolution towards 5G SA, but also for adopting more open architectures, integrating elements such as the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC), and even anticipating what 6G might bring in the next decade (hopefully).

Identifying opportunities for improvement within network processes is no easy task when operators must deal daily with special events, operational failures, adverse weather conditions, or simply the complexity of day-to-day network operations.

These challenges demand clear strategies and intelligent tools to optimise existing resources and take full advantage of new trends in automation, artificial intelligence, and much more open architectures. This is where technologies like the RIC and its applications (xApps and rApps) start to play an interesting role.

Although concepts such as SON (Self-Organising Networks) have been around for some time, the traditional approach has its limitations: inflexible solutions, often locked into a single-vendor ecosystem, and difficult to adapt or scale. The RIC, on the other hand, offers something different: an open, modular platform with distributed logic.

With rApps (non-real-time) and xApps (near-real-time), operators can automate tasks that were previously manual or limited by vendor lock-in. Among the most notable advantages over traditional SON there are:

• Greater portability – The same app can be adapted to different environments with minimal changes
• Greater flexibility – Algorithms can come from third parties or be developed in-house
• Greater intelligence – By integrating AI/ML, the ability to anticipate events and act proactively is improved

How quickly can value be realised?

One of the great promises of the RIC is that it allows operators to move forward without a complete redesign. You can start with a pilot in a specific zone or cluster, test an rApp, measure results, and then scale.

And this is already happening:

• According to recent studies¹, over 40% of global operators are using RIC in production for dynamic traffic and spectrum control
• The use of AI in RIC environments has reduced optimisation response times by up to 40%²
• In commercial projects, some rApps have achieved energy savings per cell of up to 17%, with expectations of reaching 25% or more
• Operators adopting this approach report up to a 30% reduction in TCO and up to 50% reduction in energy consumption of their radio bases – without compromising user experience

We can even talk about the benefits of artificial intelligence from a more “empathetic” perspective by using intelligent agents. These are already helping simplify technical tasks through natural-language conversations, allowing us to interact with the network more intuitively.

In short, in a region that needs efficiency without friction and evolution without disruption, the RIC and its applications – or even individual automated use cases – emerge as some of the most viable tools for taking the next step towards the mobile networks we aspire to.