Ice, a leading mobile operator in Norway, has selected Nokia – in a 5-year deal — to upgrade and expand its 5G radio network.
The move will support holding group, Lyse’s strategy of offering the best fixed and mobile services to its customers. Deployment at Ice is already underway and will run until 2026. Nokia has a long-standing partnership with Ice and also provides its core network.
Nokia said it will supply equipment from its AirScale portfolio including Single RAN, AirScale base stations, and 5G Massive MIMO antennas to support different spectrum bands. Ice will modernize approximately, 3200 base stations and deploy an additional 3900 new base stations.
These solutions will boost Ice’s 5G coverage and performance and cover all deployment scenarios from dense-urban capacity to wide-area coverage. In particular, Nokia’s solutions will enable Ice to use its broad spectrum holdings. Nokia will provide its NetAct solution for network management and seamless daily network operations as well as optimization and technical support services.
Ice has over 700,000 customers and its 4G and 5G network covers 95 percent of the population in Norway.
Eivind Helgaker, CEO of Ice, said: “This deal highlights our commitment to investing in our network and giving our subscribers the best possible connectivity experiences. Nokia has been our technology partner from the very beginning and through active competition they have again convinced us that they are still the right choice.”
Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: “”We have made great progress with the deployment of 5G services across the country and this deal will extend coverage to new areas while improving the coverage and performance of the existing footprint.”
