Nokia Signs 5G Deals with Elisa and O2 Czechia

Nokia signed new 5G operator deals spanning three European nations. Each of those deals should boost customer experience through increases in data rates and reliability.

Finnish operator Elisa added another four years to an existing contract with Nokia, tasking the vendor with readying its networks in Finland and Estonia for 5G-Advanced. Nokia explained it would provide equipment from its AirScale RAN portfolio to Elisa, comprising Habrok 32 Massive MIMO radios and its Pandion range of FDD multi-band remote radio heads, along with Tuuli 26e, Ponente Lodos and Levante baseband products.

Elisa is also set to employ Nokia’s MantaRay network management system, with the vendor to deliver network optimization, maintenance, and support services. The operator’s COO, Sami Komulainen, said Elisa is investing in new 5.5G features that enhance AI usage in response to changing customer needs.

The vendor separately detailed the deployment of a standalone 5G core network for O2 Czech Republic, promoting abilities now available to the operator, including network slicing along with bumps in security, energy efficiency, reliability, and near-zero-touch automation. O2 Czech Republic network director Jakub Votava said the SA 5G core network advances a cloud-first strategy and improves the time-to-market for new low-latency services.