The Saudi Arabian-based towerco has been working for a while with Nokia on shared connectivity infrastructure
Saudi neutral-host provider Tawal and Nokia have completed what they claim is the world’s first live demonstration of a multi-tenant, shareable Open RAN edge-cloud platform, allowing mobile operators and large enterprises to launch high-performance 5G services. The announcement follows the two companies’ work in March which saw them partner up with Zain KSA, and conduct the a 5G standalone (SA) millimetre wave (mmWave) spectrum-sharing trial.
In that trial, utilising 800MHz bandwidth in the 26 GHz band, the trio demonstrated the feasibility of multiple operators sharing the same active radio network infrastructure without compromising performance, reliability, or security. The work comes on the back of Tawal’s significant partnership with Nokia to expand its 5G network infrastructure. The partnership encompasses comprehensive turnkey services provided by Nokia, covering project management, civil engineering tasks, power supply enhancements, and the relocation and reinforcement of towers.
The two claim the showcase proves how Tawal can offer active infrastructure as a service while operators enjoy significant savings and futureproof their networks with open, cloud native flexibility.
Across Saudi Arabia, demand for widespread 5G connectivity is increasing as smart city giga projects gather pace. Yet traditional single operator rollouts risk duplicating infrastructure, driving up capex and delaying service availability. By adopting a neutral host model, Tawal reckons it can pool spectrum agnostic, Open RAN baseband and radio assets so multiple service providers share the same edge cloud platform, reducing energy consumption, freeing spectrum and shrinking the digital divide.
“Neutral hosts must add value beyond steel and concrete,” said Tawal chief commercial officer Abdulrahman Al Moaiqel. “By partnering with Nokia, we can offer Saudi operators an on demand, pay as you grow 5G platform that cuts their TCO and accelerates digital transformation for the Kingdom’s giga projects.”
Open interfaces
Nokia said its anyRAN solution, built on open interfaces, cloud agnostic software and high performance AirScale radios, is designed precisely to unlock these efficiencies. “Moving from a tower company model to a fully-fledged network company demands technology that combines openness with proven performance,” said Nokia SVP Middle East and Africa Mikko Lavanti. “Our anyRAN approach lets Tawal mix and match vendors at the cloud layer while still guaranteeing the ultra-reliable, low latency experience operators and end users expect.”
During the live demonstration at LEAP 2025 in Riyadh, Nokia 5G AirScale Indoor Radios were connected to Dell PowerEdge XR8000 servers hosting virtualized CU/DU software in Nokia’s anyRAN framework. The open, cloud‑native platform supports multi‑operator RAN sharing and can host third‑party RAN software, giving Tawal full vendor flexibility while “maintaining carrier‑grade performance”. Nokia argues the solution’s compact footprint and reduced power draw make it ideal for smart‑city edge nodes and enterprise campuses.
