In this Technology Reseller News podcast, Publisher Doug Green speaks with Roel Cortez, Senior Director, Sales–Telecom at C&D Technologies, about how AI-driven network growth is transforming power and energy storage requirements across telecom infrastructure. C&D Technologies—whose batteries and power systems are embedded throughout U.S. carrier networks—supports everything from large switching facilities to distributed inline amplifier (ILA) sites.

Cortez describes 2026 through two lenses: physical infrastructure and intelligence. He highlights continued investment in 5G SA and Advanced, aggressive fiber expansion to support data center connectivity, fast-growing fixed wireless, and emerging space-based connectivity. At the intelligence layer, operators are integrating AI to optimize and automate network operations. “Telecom operators are the backbone of digital society, but AI is changing the scale and speed they need to support,” Cortez notes.

AI’s workload demands are also reshaping optical transport and power engineering. Hyperscalers require extremely high capacity and low latency between data centers, pushing new collaboration with telecom operators—and new pressure on ILA designs. Traditional sites built for a few kilowatts per rack must now support configurations exceeding 100 kW per rack, along with new cooling strategies such as liquid cooling. Cortez points out the tension between hyperscalers’ “speed-to-market mindset” and operators’ traditional deployment pace, alongside challenges involving brownfield upgrades, greenfield design, and supply chain constraints.

As networks virtualize, Cortez emphasizes that intelligent energy storage is the next frontier for resilience. Three components of DC power plants—controllers, rectifiers, and distribution—are already smart and remotely managed. The remaining piece, batteries, is now evolving to match. “Everything in the network is becoming intelligent, and energy storage can’t be the exception anymore,” he says. With operators demanding richer telemetry and automated response capabilities, Cortez sees intelligent storage as essential to building flexible, self-aware, AI-ready telecom networks.

Learn more at https://www.cdtechno.com/.

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