Nokia reveals deals with Optus, KT and Vodafone at MWC 2019

February 24, 2019

Nokia today announced its association with Optus Australia, KT Korea and Vodafone Group at the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2019) in Barcelona.

Optus

Optus is using Nokia’s FastMile 5G Gateway to launch 5G fixed-wireless broadband access service targeting home customers.

Nokia’s FastMile 5G Gateway allows operators upgrading their LTE network to capture new Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) revenue and accelerate 5G rollouts. Nokia’s FastMile 5G Gateway uses the same sub-6GHz 5G that operators will use to upgrade their LTE grid, providing broader coverage of FWA.

Allen Lew, chief executive officer at Optus, said: “Nokia’s FastMile 5G Gateway plays an important role in our overall plans to launch a commercial 5G fixed-wireless access service that is capable of enhancing wireless broadband performance in homes.”

Nokia announced its agreement with Korea Telecom (KT) to collaborate and trial various 5G technologies, including NFV and network slicing, in order to develop new applications and business models for the operator’s enterprise customers.

The joint work will include Service Orchestration and Assurance for the 5G era, with the aim of delivering end-to-end automation and new revenue opportunities. The trials are planned to take place in Seoul later this year.

Hongbeom Jeon, chief technology officer, Korea Telecom, said: “Virtualization and network slicing will allow us to offer new and innovative services, such as connected cars, virtual reality, IoT use cases and smart factory.”

Vodafone

Vodafone in partnership with Nokia will demonstrate two massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (mMIMO) innovations to improve 5G capacity and performance. Vodafone and Nokia will showcase how 5G services can be delivered using low power, compact form factor and more easily deployed RFIC based mMIMO antennas.

The RFIC based Nokia mMIMO active antenna is an industry first solution to implement mass-manufactured terminal technology for more flexible, lower impact mMIMO antenna solutions. Vodafone will be the first mobile operator in Europe to field-test the Nokia active antennas incorporating RFIC.

Santiago Tenorio, head of network strategy and architecture, Vodafone said: “Demonstrations of the first 5G mMIMO scheduler and compact RFIC mMIMO active antenna will help us to accelerate Vodafone 5G in global markets.”