Nokia announced Tuesday that it will supply its Multi-Access Gateway (MAG) solution to boost T-Mobile’s fixed wireless access (FWA) high-speed internet traffic.
The gateway solution supports LTE, 5G Non-standalone (NSA) and 5G Standalone (SA) technologies, so it appears to cover all the relevant bases for T-Mobile.
Nokia said the MAG solution will allow T-Mobile to improve service scalability and time to market – and allow T-Mobile to deliver an “affordable, reliable and seamless broadband experience" to every customer.
“T-Mobile is one of the fastest growing broadband providers in the country and we are committed to expanding our High-Speed Internet service nationwide,” said T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer John Saw in a statement. “The Nokia MAG solution will allow us to simplify our architecture and reduce operational life cycle management and our energy footprint.”
*Update: In response to questions from Fierce, a Nokia spokesperson said the Nokia MAG supports various deployment models, including software-only, hardware-only and a combined software/hardware approach.
A T-Mobile spokesperson confirmed that the “un-carrier” is deploying the combination hardware and software option. The spokesperson did not have a timeline to share in terms of when the deployment will be completed.
At last check, T-Mobile was serving more than 4.2 million customers with its FWA high-speed internet product, well on its way of reaching its target of 7 million to 8 million FWA customers by 2025. T-Mobile is expected to update its year-end 2023 FWA tally when it reports Q4 2023 results on Thursday.
T-Mobile + Nokia & Ericsson
No doubt, Nokia could use some U.S. operator love right about now. Last month, AT&T rocked the industry when it announced it will use Ericsson for its ambitious open Radio Access Network (RAN) initiative. It came to a surprise to a lot of people, especially since in the larger scheme of things, Nokia was a lot quicker to embrace open RAN than Ericsson.
Soon after, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert commented at a UBS investor event that T-Mobile deeply values its partnerships with both Nokia and Ericsson and sees it as an advantage that it can buy “up and down the stack” from multiple vendors. T-Mobile’s primary 5G infrastructure vendors are Nokia and Ericsson.
Nokia’s press release this week didn’t disclose a monetary value of its MAG deal with T-Mobile, but it all helps the bottom line. Both Nokia and Ericsson are feeling the effects of the slowdown in 5G operator spending, including in North America.
Globally, Ericsson on Tuesday said that for the full year 2023, sales declined to $25.09 billion, a drop of 3% from the previous year.
Nokia is set to report its full year 2023 and Q4 2023 earnings on Thursday. Nokia’s shares were trading around $3.36 on Tuesday, while Ericsson shares were at $5.89.
*This article was updated January 24 with additional comment from Nokia and T-Mobile.