Nokia and Deutsche Telekom deepen partnership on AI-native networks, Open RAN

Nokia Oyj

02/03/2026 07:00

March 2 (Reuters) - Nokia NOKIA.HE and Deutsche Telekom DTEGn.DE said on Monday they would expand their collaboration to speed up development of cloud-based, disaggregated and AI-native radio access network (RAN) technology.

This deepened partnership is laying down building blocks for programmable and automated mobile networks that are simpler, faster and better optimised for future connectivity needs as wide-scale adoption of artificial intelligence reshapes the industry, the companies said in a joint statement.

KEY DETAILS

The companies will deepen joint work on open interfaces and multivendor network flexibility.

They will increase cooperation on Open Fronthaul (OFH) integration, building on earlier work linking Nokia baseband units with third-party O-RAN-compliant radio units in Germany.

Nokia will act as Telekom's strategic co-creation partner for AI-native RAN development, including planned lab and field validation work.

Value of the contract was not disclosed.

(Reporting by Agnieszka Olenska in Gdansk, Editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)

((Agnieszka.Olenska@thomsonreuters.com;))