Nokia has been selected by Finnish telecom Telia Company to deploy standalone 5G in Finland through a five-year deal that will include coverage in 7,500 cities.
Nokia and Telia have teamed up previously to bring 5G standalone (SA) core technology to Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden.
SA 5G uses new infrastructure put in place specifically to run 5G networks allowing smart devices and other potential use cases to take advantage of the high download speed, high bandwidth and low latency that the technology affords. Non-standalone (NS) 5G technology, which has been the bulk of the 5G networks deployed worldwide, uses 4G infrastructure already in place and piggybacks on the 5G signal through this equipment. Because 4G infrastructure has been deployed globally, the NS equipment is more plentiful than SA 5G equipment currently installed worldwide. However, SA infrastructure is growing in deployment.
As part of the agreement, Nokia will provide Telia with its AirScale portfolio including 5G RAN, AirScale base stations and Nokia AirScale radio access products. The deal will modernize exiting radio networks as well as roll out 5G to Finland.
Nokia’s 5G core and cloud packet core (CPC) portfolios will supply Telia with a 5G SA core network allowing Telia to build a unified core network offering quad-access (2G/3G/4G/5G) services for seamless coverage.
Telia opened its first pre-commercial 5G networks in Helsinki, Vantaa and Oulu in Finland two years ago and last year the first commercial network was rolled out and 5G has since been deployed to 42 cities in Finland.
