Mavenir is placing voice at the centre of its AI strategy.
The company has partnered with Sanas, a real-time Speech AI specialist. The deal adds AI-powered voice tools to Mavenir’s MAVcore Voice AI portfolio. Operators could use these tools for live translation, clearer calls, and speech enhancement.
The move also targets rising threats in voice communications. These include deepfakes, scam calls, and AI-generated fraud. Voice networks may soon need stronger protection at the service layer.
For Pardeep Kohli, Mavenir president and CEO, the shift builds on familiar ground. “Voice has always been our bread and butter, even from day one,” Kohli tells Mobile Europe.
“We started when people were going from 3G to 4G. We started working on Voice over LTE and Voice over Wi-Fi because, prior to 4G, everything was circuit-switched.”
That background matters as voice becomes more intelligent. Mavenir serves more than 300 customers across voice, messaging, and core network software. It now wants operators to do more than connect calls.
Sanas brings experience from the contact centre market. Its systems can handle accents, background noise, and difficult audio conditions. Mavenir aims to move that capability into consumer mobile networks.
“When you’re doing a live translation in the consumer world, it’s actually happening in the network, and you’re dealing with millions of people,” Kohli reveals.
This scale creates new challenges for operators. Telecoms networks must support emergency calls and lawful access rules. Contact centre platforms do not face the same requirements.
Live translation offers an easy use case to understand. Families, companies, and travellers could speak across language gaps. The service could also help users with strong accents communicate more clearly.
Yet translation is only one part of the plan. Mavenir is also exploring noise removal during calls. This could help emergency services hear callers in dangerous environments.
“If you are in a very noisy environment, let’s say if there’s a big crash and you’re calling emergency services, but if you take the noise out people can hear better what’s going on,” he says.
The company also sees AI as a defence tool. Criminals already use synthetic voices and automated calling systems. Operators may need stronger voice security to protect customers.
This strategy also opens a wider debate for mobile network operators. For years, they funded each new mobile generation. Yet much of the service value moved to internet platforms.
“We went from 1G to 5G, and every generation, more value got created, but not by operators themselves,” he explains.
AI could give operators a new service role. Some may remain focused on connectivity alone. Others may build smarter services inside the mobile core.
“There’ll be another set of players who will try and experiment with AI transformation. They will ask themselves how they can bring more value to my customers?”
The challenge remains user experience. Voice must feel natural, fast, and reliable. Any delay or distortion becomes obvious during conversation.
If Mavenir succeeds, operators could move beyond basic access. They could offer trusted, intelligent voice services at network scale. That would make the mobile core more strategic again.
