Nokia has joined Verizon’s list of approved network equipment vendors with certified private network systems that can be deployed with its own licensed mid-band spectrum. The US operator has issued a statement to say Nokia’s Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) private LTE/5G system has completed the “first phase of certification” for local private usage of its licensed spectrum. Swedish rival Ericsson is already on the list. Ericsson, Nokia, and Celona have all been approved by Verizon Business for unlicensed private/shared network deployments in the CBRS band in the US.
A statement said: “When added to its portfolio, Nokia DAC will expand Verizon Business’ hardware and software options available to customers of Verizon Business’ private 5G Network offering. The Nokia DAC platform will also be used to enhance indoor coverage for Verizon consumers and enterprise customers… Once fully certified and added to Verizon’s commercial lineup, the Nokia DAC platform will also be in-production and available in Verizon’s innovation labs for Verizon’s enterprise customers to trial.”
Verizon Business told RCR Wireless last week that its large-scale deployment at US engine manufacturer Cummins in New York state used core and radio network products from Ericsson, in part, because Ericsson’s was the only equipment that had so far been certified for private network installations in its licensed spectrum in the US. Where it can, the operator is offering localised tranches of its own licensed spectrum to deliver higher-grade reliability for more critical-grade industries and applications, rather than just shared spectrum access in the 3.55-3.7 GHz CBRS band.
The move to certify Nokia’s DAC system, available in two/three formats, will extend also to the Finnish vendor’s MXIE industrial edge computing platform, which runs application workloads adjacent to the core LTE/5G network. The DAC/MXIE combination is being pitched for “smart manufacturing, predictive maintenance, remote operations and many other applications”, said Verizon. There is no word on whether Nokia’s large scale Modular Private Wireless (MPW) system is on the cards for approval, also. Verizon stated: “These expanded capabilities will further fuel additional private network growth and support more robust use cases beyond what previous CBRS-only generations were capable of.”
Praveen Atreya, vice president of technology and planning at Verizon, said: “Private wireless networks have become an integral part of digital transformation for modern enterprises, and we are committed to developing new offerings and advancing the technology that enables private 5G networks to drive efficiency and profitability for our customers.”
David de Lancellotti, vice president of Nokia’s enterprise campus edge business, said: “After many successful years working with Verizon on dedicated and unlicensed (CBRS) spectrum implementations in Europe and the US, we are excited to expand our partnership to include licensed spectrum implementations in North America and leverage our Nokia DAC private wireless and digitalization platform to accelerate the proliferation of 5G and industry 4.0’s transformation. This is a strategic growth area for Nokia and having a go to market partner like Verizon is pivotal to our success.”
