Ericsson and Nokia Announce New Collaboration

Ericsson and Nokia announced new cooperation on network evolution. It should advance intelligent automation across purpose-built, cloud RAN, and Open RAN networks.

Under the collaboration, Ericsson will become a member of Nokia’s SMO Marketplace, which is designed to empower Communication Service Providers (CSPs) and partners to build, integrate, and deploy automation applications within an open, multivendor ecosystem. Nokia will also be a member of the Ericsson rApp Ecosystem, the open ecosystem of CSPs, vendors, and independent developers built around the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform, Ericsson’s network management and automation platform for open, multivendor, and multi-technology networks.

The mutual ecosystem membership reflects Ericsson and Nokia’s shared focus on championing Autonomous Networks, with a particular focus on innovation centred around the R1 interface through which rApps interact with the SMO. Shared efforts such as this are essential for bringing AI and automation into mobile networks to transform deployment, optimization, and operations workflows as CSPs globally seek to achieve and surpass Level 4 autonomy. This collaboration will enhance cross-industry development and will lead to more seamless adoption and integration of automation tools across diverse multivendor environments. Through the collaboration, both companies will make rApps available to CSPs on both platforms.

"This collaboration is a key step forward for the telecoms industry,” says Anders Vestergren, Head of Solution Area Network Management at Ericsson, “giving CSPs greater choice and flexibility as they execute their Autonomous Network transformation strategies. The agreement between Nokia and Ericsson shows genuine progress in the ongoing and already-productive effort to encourage innovation using the R1 interface, and cultivate diverse, engaged, and dynamic rApp ecosystems working together to embed this essential area of telecoms technology in networks worldwide.”

“This partnership with Ericsson marks a pivotal advancement in how the industry delivers the next generation of autonomous networks,” said Ari Kynaslahti, CTO at Nokia. “By aligning on open frameworks and intelligent operational models, we are giving service providers a more adaptive and future-proof foundation for automation. This collaboration also accelerates the evolution of robust rApp environments that will enable operators to introduce new capabilities faster, optimize their networks with greater precision, and scale innovation across diverse deployment scenarios worldwide.”