Nokia announced that it has signed 17 new 5G commercial deals in Q3. With these wins, the company now has 100 commercial 5G deals with individual customers and a total of 160 commercial 5G engagements, including paid trials.
Nokia is present in all 5G early adopter markets, with deals with the top four US CSPs and the top three in both Japan and Korea. Just this week, Nokia signed a new 5G deal with BT in the UK and a renewed 5G deal with Elisa in Finland.
Nokia’s 5G portfolio is also gaining traction amongst enterprises. Enterprise customers now make up 12% of Nokia’s 5G deals, with recent private wireless deployments including Deutsche Bahn, Toyota Production Engineering and Sandvik. Nokia also boasts a 180-strong portfolio of private wireless customers, many of whom are expected to migrate to 5G.
Nokia’s increasing 5G momentum amongst CSPs and enterprises is being driven by advances in Nokia’s technology:
- In February, Nokia revealed it was first in the world to pioneer 4G and 5G network slicing, which enables operators to deliver unique, isolated ‘slices’ of the end-to-end network to their customers, tailored to specific applications.
- In April, it introduced the industry’s first Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) solution that supports spectrum sharing between 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G.
- In July, the company announced it can migrate five million legacy 4G radio units to 5G via a software upgrade, making it easier for operators to move to 5G.
- Nokia made its 5G standalone (SA) private wireless technology commercially available in July – the first network equipment provider to do so.
- In August, Nokia contributed to the world’s first large-scale 5G SA launch with T-Mobile in the US.
Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks, Nokia, said: “We are thrilled to have passed this 5G milestone. We know we still have work to do and that the market remains highly competitive. But, we are moving fast – and these wins make it clear that our progress is being validated by customers. We deeply appreciate their ongoing support and are committed to delivering for them.”