Nokia and Telia Finland have launched what they claim is the world’s first commercial 5G standalone (SA) network with network slicing for fixed wireless access (FWA) services.
FWA broadband shipments are expected to reach 7.6 million units this year but the forecast is expected to nearly double to 13 million unit shipments by 2023, according to a recent report from TrendForce.
Telia is introducing 5G SA for its FWA home broadband services and will start to offer a range of broadband deals to customers in Finland. These services will complement existing broadband and give new capacity benefits.
Nokia will upgrade Telia’s 5G radio access network (RAN) infrastructure and enable 5G slicing using equipment from its AirScale portfolio including 5G radio and baseband products. The SA core will give Telia scale, speed and security to deliver 5G services with near zero-touch automation and adherence to service level agreements.
Recently, Nokia partnered with Google to start trial network slicing using a 4G/5G network. The project will be deployed to connect multiple consumer and enterprise applications running on multiple slices simultaneously. The slicing solution supports LTE, 5G non-standalone and 5G SA devices for mobile operators to use a huge device ecosystem.
For this partnership, Telia will allocate a portion of the network for 5G FWA to balance the network slicing between FWA and mobile users. Telia will be able to specify slices with differentiated levels of speed, latency and data quality to offer various broadband deals with guaranteed service levels with 5G FWA gateways included in the deal.
