Nokia got the ball rolling with its Infinera deal officially complete and new partnerships in key growth areas of AI RAN and defence communications
Nokia has opened a new facility at its offices in Dallas dedicated to AI-RAN with existing partners KDDI, NVIDIA, T-Mobile US and Softbank.
The vendor is one of the founding members of the AI-RAN Alliance, which was launched last year at MWC24 and aims to improve mobile network efficiency and power consumption, create new monetization opportunities, and prepare for 6G.
Nokia’s new centre in Dallas is a further sign of commitment to the concept and follows news of a similar facility in Bellevue, Washington, that it will join with Ericsson, NVIDIA, and T-Mobile US.
The partners will test AI-RAN in real-world network conditions and work on creating new use cases and validating a reference architecture.
Nokia has a strategic partnership with KDDI to explore the commercial viability of the technology. Together, the companies plan to trial AI-enabled RAN hardware as well as using AI to enhance network performance.
Sharing workloads with Softbank
With Softbank, Nokia has teamed to show how RAN and non-RAN AI workloads can share computing resources. The benefits of running AI workloads in the RAN include improving operational efficiency and opening new avenues for monetization for mobile operators.
Nokia is also working with T-Mobile to evaluate AI-RAN network architecture and the co-existence of AI and RAN on shared infrastructure using Nokia Cloud RAN and NVIDIA platforms.
Speaking during Nokia’s press conference, Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, explained that operators have dimensioned their radio networks for busy hours “when there is the most amount of traffic,” but the capacity is not needed all of the time.
“What if we changed the paradigm so that the base station site becomes a far edge cloud site with AI computing capability? And what if we could sell that spare capacity of AI computing, to whomever happens to need it?” he said.
That is one of the scenarios envisioned by the AI-RAN Alliance.
Military-grade 5G
Nokia also announced a partnership with Lockheed Martin. The defence manufacturer has integrated Nokia’s military-grade 5G technology into its 5G.MIL hybrid base station, along with Verizon’s network management capabilities.
Defence communications is one of the several key growth areas for Nokia, along with data centres and private wireless/industrial edge. Nokia acquired Fenix Group in May 2024 to bolster its defence offerings and has integrated the company’s tactical communications product into its 5G platform.
Outgoing Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark indicated there will be more partnerships as it targets the defence sector “because nobody can do everything.”
“It’s vital to have trusted actors in this space. Defence communications is increasingly about real-time, situational awareness,” said Lundmark.
Infinera deal done
Nokia was also pleased to show off its expanded network infrastructure business thanks to completing the acquisition of Infinera just 40 hours before the pre-MWC25 press conference on Sunday.
“Infinera is a huge deal … This significantly increases our scale in optical networks and accelerates our innovation with web scalers and strengthens our position in the US, including in US manufacturing,” said Lundmark.
Infinera will be part of Nokia’s Optical Networks business. Former Infinera CEO David Heard has joined Nokia as Chief Strategic Growth Officer for Network Infrastructure.
“The timing of this deal just couldn’t be any better. Typically, when you announce a deal, customers get a bit confused… they panic [about] what’s going to happen. But since the deal was announced in June, both businesses have gained momentum. If you look all the way into Q4, [Nokia] Network Infrastructure grew at 19% in terms of revenue… Infinera grew 17% year over year in revenue,” said Heard, speaking at the pre-MWC25 the event.
“Our team is jacked up. We’re very stoked to be able to put the R&D that both companies have done separately … together in what can be our R&D plan to address some really big markets,” he added.
Lundmark bids adieu
Lundmark reflected on his five years at Nokia as he is to hand over the reins on 1 April to Justin Hotard, who is currently head of data centre and AI at Intel.
Although he is retiring, he does not plan to stop working, but work “in a different capacity” and be on hand to advise Hotard until the of this year for a “smooth transition”. He said he has been a CEO of listed companies for 23 years. “That’s 92 quarters… I believe that’s enough for one person,” he said.
“The achievement I’m proudest of during these five years is that we have regained our technology leadership. We had a pretty tough situation in 2020 in the initial phases of 5G. Now the situation is completely different, and it is different across all network domains. We have also identified now significant growth vectors,” he said.
He also addressed the “tough market” Nokia and other suppliers faced in 2023 and early 2024, “when service providers all of a sudden decided to cut their investment” after spending big in the previous two years.
“I’m so pleased to see that the markets are now coming back. There is increased momentum…But most importantly, we have reduced costs, improved our technology position, and that should put us in a good position… And Hotard is a great choice to be my successor,” he said.
