Nokia can boast a big win for its cloud packet core solution now that Telia Company has selected it for the whole of its properties in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania.
“This is a really exciting announcement for us from a Nokia perspective,” said Nick Cadwgan, director of IP mobile network marketing at Nokia. “It gives them the performance and the cloud platform that they can really build upon to deliver these new services across their multiple operating companies.”
Financial details of the contract were not revealed in a press release, but Nokia said its AirGile cloud-native design will enable Telia to benefit from a full cloud architecture, streamlining engineering and operations to run on a common infrastructure across all six countries in which it operates.
Telia will transition its evolved packet core to a common cloud-native solution on a shared cloud infrastructure. Nokia’s cloud-native packet core, including its Cloud Mobility Manager and Cloud Mobile Gateway, is a key enabler in the transformation.
With 5G on the horizon, Nokia has been driving the market forward to using cloud native for broadband evolution, IoT, enterprise and residential, Cadwgan said. “We’re seeing a lot of activity," he said. "We are heavily engaged in the market and we are very much driving forward in this particular area."
Nokia plans to begin the deployment of Telia’s new core network in multiple data center locations across the company’s operations.
The deal with Telia further reinforces Nokia’s strategy, he said. “We need to enable them to profit from these new opportunities” and to evolve with confidence, which they get with Nokia’s leadership in mobile, IP and, of course, Bell Labs, which Nokia acquired in 2016.
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As for Nokia’s progress in becoming more of a software company, Cadwgan said the company is embracing that but with a sense of reality and realization that it has to be done with a sensible approach—finding the best technologies and integrating them to allow customers like Telia to have the toolkits they need to be successful.
He could not comment on Telia’s plans for 5G and where Nokia fits in there, but of course Nokia is gunning to be part of Telia’s 5G network.
RELATED: Telia shows off 5G in Europe with Ericsson, Intel
Last year, Telia announced some 5G work with Ericsson and Intel, where they equipped a Tallink cruise ship with a 5G network while in harbor and remotely controlled a construction excavator via 5G at the EU Digital Summit in Tallinn, Estonia.
Telia said at the time that the demonstrations marked an important milestone in the global 5G road map, moving Ericsson, Intel and Telia—and, more importantly, Telia customers—closer to the goal of bringing 5G services to life in both Tallinn and Stockholm, said to be two of the most digitalized cities in the world, in 2018.
Nokia's Telia news comes after the company announced it signed a five-year agreement with Australia’s Optus under which Nokia will manage and maintain key components of Optus’ network infrastructure, operations and field maintenance. As part of that contract, Nokia and Optus will develop a Network Operations Center.