Nokia has signed business cooperation and patent agreements with Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi.
The multi-year agreement relates to each company’s cellular standard essential patents. Xiaomi has also bought patent assets as part of the agreement.
Nokia will provide Xiaomi with network infrastructure equipment, which it said was designed to deliver high capacity, low power functionality needed for web providers and data centre operators.
The two companies said they would collaborate on optical transport solutions for data centre interconnect, IP routing, which will be based on Nokia’s FP4 network processor, and a data centre fabric solution.
It builds on a deal the two companies signed at this year’s Mobile World Congress, in which Nokia provided Xiaomi with a data interconnect solution for its data centres in Beijing.
Nokia and Xiaomi will also explore further projects in the Internet of Things, augmented and virtual reality, and artificial intelligence.
Xiaomi builds smartphones and wearables under the Mi brand, but has recently lost ground to fellow Chinese manufacturers Oppo and Vivo.
Rajeev Suri, President & CEO of Nokia, said: “Xiaomi is one of the world’s leading smartphone manufacturers and we are delighted to have reached an agreement with them.
“In addition to welcoming such a prominent global technology company to our family of patent licensees, we look forward to working together on a wide range of strategic projects.”
Lei Jun, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi, added: “As a company seeking to deliver more exciting technological innovations to the world, we are excited at the opportunity to work more closely with Nokia in future.
“Our collaboration with Nokia will enable us to tap on its leadership in building large, high performance networks and formidable strength in software and services, as we seek to create even more remarkable products and services that deliver the best user experience to our Mi fans worldwide.”
Nokia and Apple recently settled a long-running patent dispute, with the Finnish vendor now providing network infrastructure and patents to the iPhone manufacturer.