Nokia and Telefónica Germany have gone ahead and signed a new five-year contract extension in order to modernize the nationwide radio access network of the operator through 2030, speeding the 5G rollout and also supporting the digital transformation objectives of Germany. The renewed agreement happens to reinforce the long-standing partnership between the companies and also brings the latest Cloud RAN capabilities as well as AI-powered network management tools from Nokia into the infrastructure of Telefónica.
As part of this deal, Nokia is going to deliver its energy-efficient as well as AI-ready AirScale RAN portfolio, which includes the likes of Habrok Massive MIMO radios for the n78 band, Pandion multiband remote radio heads along with the AirScale small cells. These additions are designed in order to boost both the indoor as well as the outdoor coverage, enhance the energy efficiency, and at the same time also elevate the 5G performance of the operator. Telefónica, apparently, is also going to integrate the newest baseband systems from Nokia in order to further make the network reliability stronger.
The deployment is going to incorporate the Interleaved Passive Active Antenna – IPAA+ solution from Nokia that is aimed at simplifying the site design and also speeding up the 5G expansion. The contract also has maintenance in it along with the network optimization services.
Telefónica, on the other hand, is going to continue making use of the MantaRay NM network management platform from Nokia, which supports Cloud RAN as well as purpose-built RAN architectures, thereby offering complete functional control throughout the core, radio, and transport network layers. The move is indeed a major step toward the shared ambition of the companies in order to advance Telefónica Germany’s network in terms of higher levels of AI-driven automation.
The Director of Networks at O2 from Telefónica, Matthias Sauder, said that Nokia has been a trusted partner in their journey in order to deliver the best network experience when it comes to their customers. This five-year contract extension is indeed a reflection of their shared commitment in order to advance the 5G technology and also go ahead and create Germany which is more connected as well as sustainable.
Nokia’s President and CEO went on to add that they are proud to extend their partnership with Telefónica Germany as they go on to help them make their performance and efficiency, as well as customer experience, stronger all across their 5G network. Due to the anyRAN software from Nokia, along with the AirScale baseband as well as autonomous network platforms, Telefónica is also positioned in terms of long-term competitiveness as the AI supercycle takes charge.