Nokia will provide its innovative small cells products to Chunghwa Telecom, a mobile operator in Taiwan, to enhance 5G coverage.
Chunghwa Telecom is the first mobile operator in Taiwan to deploy a 5G non-standalone (NSA) small cells solution enabling instant 5G coverage in specific areas such as business as well as tourist districts.

Nokia said it has already commenced deployment and has installed 140 5G small cells to date.

Nokia will supply its AirScale indoor Radio (ASiR) solution for better indoor coverage and capacity, as well as its AirScale micro RRH for outdoor and urban hot spots. These will be deployed to complement the existing base of over 2,500 sets of 4G small cells.

Nokia’s 5G small cells portfolio enables operators to address 5G network densification and indoor coverage requirements.

Chunghwa Telecom is working with local small to medium-size enterprises to provide secure 5G coverage to enable industry 4.0 automation. Approximately 80 percent of mobile sessions are initiated indoors from homes and businesses and high-quality indoor 5G coverage is pivotal to ensuring a good end-user experience.

Recently, GlobalData ranked Nokia as the leading small cells vendor in its competitive assessment, published in July 2020.

Ed Gubbins, principal analyst at GlobalData, said: “Nokia’s small cells offer high data throughput, compact form factors, and macrocell feature parity and 5G support can be seen across the portfolio.”

Max Chen, president of Mobile Division, Chunghwa Telecom, said: “We are an existing customer of Nokia’s 4G small cells portfolio and had no hesitation in also adopting their 5G products for the first wave of deployment.”

Tommi Uitto, president, Mobile Networks, Nokia, said: “We are proud to support Chunghwa Telecom in their pioneering efforts to deliver compelling 5G coverage to key indoor and outdoor locations across Taiwan.”