The telco plans to widely deploy the Nokia technology this year
Finnish vendor Nokia and compatriot operator Elisa have carried out a test of Cloud RAN technology, which allows cellular base stations to be moved to and managed in the cloud
Cloud RAN technology also allows operators to transfer capacity from one base station to another without base stations needing to be moved.
The test was carried out at Nokia’s headquarters in Espoo, Finland.
With this trial, Elisa is the first telecommunications operator in the Nordic country to test the technology on a commercial network. Elisa plans to deploy the technology allowing base stations to be virtualized more widely during 2017.
The technology is expected to be used for the deployment of future 5G networks. However, the Finish telco also said Cloud RAN technology would also help with managing the growing traffic on existing networks.
“In the future, it will be possible to shift capacity at the end of a working day from office districts to shopping centers and residential areas, and networks will not get congested,” Sami Komulainen, Elisa’s Vice President, said.
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In November, Elisa launched Finland’s first cloud-based VoLTE and voice over Wi-Fi services.
Elisa initially launched commercial LTE services in 2011. The telco currently offers 4G technology through spectrum in the 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands.
Telia looks for M&A opportunities in Nordics, Baltics markets
In related news, Nordic telecommunications group Telia Company’s CEO Johan Dennelind has revealed that the telco is looking for M&A opportunities in the Nordics and Baltics.
The executive also said that he expects to sell off the operator’s assets in Eurasia during this year.
“We continue to look for value creative M&A to support our strategy in the Nordics & Baltics,” he said. “We see it as highly probable that the Eurasian assets will be disposed during 2017,” Dennelind added.