Nokia will provide technology solutions to help the Chinese telco transition to future-oriented networks
Nokia and China Mobile have signed a one-year frame agreement to support the Chinese mobile operator’s transition to a future-oriented network infrastructure. Nokia said the agreement is valued at up to 1 billion euro ($1.17 billion).
Under the terms of the del, Nokia will provide China Mobile with end-to-end technology solutions to enable a next-generation network for the provision of cloud-based and machine communications. Nokia will provide additional elements of its mobile radio access and core portfolio in addition to fixed access, IP routing and optical transport, customer experience management.
Nokia and China Mobile will now work to define the products and services that will enable the carrier to explore new opportunities in vertical markets.
“This is a highly significant agreement with our longstanding partner that consolidates Nokia’s position as a leading provider of next-generation technologies and services in China. We are committed to delivering industry-leading, end-to-end capabilities that will allow operators to dramatically increase performance, which will introduce new possibilities for networks of the future,” said Mike Wang, President of Nokia Shanghai Bell.
Nokia and China Mobile have recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to investigate the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to optimize future networks and enable the delivery of new edge cloud and 5G services.
Under the terms of the agreement, the two firms will jointly establish a laboratory in Hangzhou, China to develop the demo system to verify technology use cases using Nokia’s 5G Future X architecture. The deal also stipulates that China Mobile will lead the research in terms of scenario selection, requirements confirmation, open API standardization and solution definition.
Earlier this year, Nokia and China Mobile signed an agreement under which the two companies will jointly investigate how the Chinese operator can extend its service offerings for vertical markets using the capabilities of 5G technology.
The joint research, which was announced during the 2018 Mobile World Congress, will focus on how industries could benefit from the growth of smart cities, smart transportation and intelligent video analytics, Nokia said.
The Finnish vendor also highlighted that the deployment of 5G will allow China Mobile to leverage network slicing to support new services and businesses simultaneously with different service level requirements. Under the agreement, which extends Nokia and China Mobile’s existing 5G collaboration, the companies will jointly research and trial use-cases leveraging Nokia 5G Future X network architecture as well as NB-IoT and multi-access edge computing (MEC).
