Nokia has announced that it has successfully completed the first 5G non-standalone (NSA) Cloud RAN trial in India. This trial represents a significant milestone for Airtel’s network evolution, allowing them to deliver superior customer experiences through high-performing networks.
The trial utilized Nokia’s RAN software for virtualized network functions and achieved over 1.2 Gbps data throughput on Airtel’s commercial network. The companies said that the trial took place in an over-the-air environment utilizing 3.5 GHz spectrum for 5G and 2100 MHz for 4G.
This paves the way for increased service innovation, network automation, and efficient resource scaling for Airtel. This collaboration showcases Nokia’s anyRAN approach, which allows operators to build future-proof networks with flexibility in choosing cloud infrastructure and suppliers.
The approach enables a hybrid network with both Cloud RAN and traditional deployments, delivering consistent high-quality performance.
Commenting on this, Randeep Sekhon, Chief Technology Officer at Bharti Airtel, said:
This successful Cloud RAN trial is a significant step forward in our consistent efforts to integrate the latest and most efficient technologies into our network and leverage these to deliver brilliant customer experiences. This partnership with Nokia has enabled us to pioneer innovative solutions to upgrade our capabilities in 5G.
Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said:
This successful trial with our long-term partner, Bharti Airtel supports their ambitions for building scalable, agile and highly automated networks. Nokia’s approach to Cloud RAN means that our customers can flexibly evolve to Cloud RAN with choices in Cloud infrastructure and data center hardware. This will drive efficiency, innovation, openness, and scale in their RAN evolution.