(July 15): Nokia Oyj says it developed the first commercial artificial intelligence-driven radio access network platform together with Nvidia Corp to radically increase the amount of data operators can transmit using existing infrastructure.
The move comes less than ten months after the companies announced a partnership that also included Nvidia taking a stake in the Finnish maker of network equipment.
The new gear will allow telecommunication network operators to transmit double the amount of data over the same airwaves by 2028, Nokia said in a statement on Wednesday. Next year, when the hardware will become available to operators, spectrum efficiency gains are expected to reach 50%, while currently 20% have been achieved.
Available in three new hardware solutions and a software component, the technology will also help “extend AI in the physical world". It allows for upgrades to the not-yet-defined 6G standard by updating the software, compliant with the Open RAN standard that allows it to be used with other vendors’ kits.
Higher efficiency of expensive spectrum frequencies will yield better returns and faster upgrades for operators going forward, Justin Hotard, CEO at Nokia, said in the statement. In addition to selling hardware components with pre-installed software, the Finnish vendor also plans to shift to a subscription model, offering enhanced software on a continuous basis.
The new technology will enter the market at a time when European telco operators are still in the process of upgrading their networks to the fifth-generation standard. The uptake has been slower than expected as network carriers have struggled to pass on the costs of their investments to customers amid high competitive pressure and difficulties in demonstrating actual cases requiring the advanced connectivity.
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That will be different with the new platform as it fundamentally transforms the way networks work, according to Nvidia and Nokia. Wireless phone networks are shifting from being built around discrete pieces of hardware to being run by more standard computers defined by software. The ultimate goal of the partnership with Nvidia is to process data closer to the user, so there’s less lag in sending data and more Nvidia chips in mobile networks.
“Together with Nokia, we are bringing Nvidia Cuda and AI into the baseband, transforming RAN into a planet-scale AI computer. This is a generational shift for operators — unlocking more capacity and efficiency from today’s spectrum while creating the foundation for new AI services and the 6G era,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in the statement.
The partnership with Nvidia was announced in October as part of a broader strategy change at Nokia, refocusing the maker of telco network equipment for broadband as well as mobile connectivity services to profit from the build-out of artificial intelligence infrastructure more broadly.
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The deal that opens digital networks as a potential market for Nvidia’s chips also includes a collaboration in the data centre connectivity market Nokia bet on with its US$2.3 billion acquisition of Infinera in 2024. Nokia’s share price surged almost 170% this year before paring that gain to 86%.
Swedish competitor Ericsson AB is also upgrading its equipment in anticipation of more AI-powered devices, such as robots, running on mobile networks. Ericsson chose not to enter the data centre market but to remain a pure-play supplier for mobile network gear to telecom operators, outgoing CEO Börje Ekholm said at his last earnings call on the job on Tuesday.
“We selected to be in a different part of the value chain,” Ekholm said. “When AI really enters the physical world, we will capitalise on our position.”
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