Telia has launched the world’s first commercial 5G standalone (SA) network with network slicing for Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services in Finland – in association with Nokia.
Nokia, according to the deal, will upgrade Telia’s 5G Radio Access Network infrastructure to enable 5G slicing utilizing equipment from its AirScale portfolio including 5G radio and baseband products. Nokia’s 5G AirScale network portfolio supports mobile operators rapidly transitioning to 5G standalone networks.
Nokia 5G SA Core gives Telia the speed, intelligence, scale, and security to deliver 5G services while cost-effectively managing its network with near zero-touch automation and adherence to Service Level Agreements.
The network slicing will mean that Telia can dynamically allocate a portion of the network for 5G FWA, flexibly balance traffic between FWA and mobile users, and provide new services like application category-based slicing.
Nokia 5G FWA gateways are included in the deal. Telia is also utilizing Nokia’s Carrier Aggregation technology for making the best use of its 5G spectrum assets to improve coverage in key regions.
Nokia is the exclusive provider of Telia for 5G RAN and Core in Finland. Nokia is also a partner to Telia Company and also supplies 5G SA core in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden in the Nordic and Baltic regions.
Nokia is the industry leader in 4G/5G network slicing and was the first to demonstrate 4G/5G network slicing across RAN-Transport-Core with management and assurance. Nokia’s network slicing solution supports LTE, 5G NSA, and 5G SA devices, enabling mobile operators to utilize a huge device ecosystem and provide slice continuity over 4G and 5G.
“We were one of the first operators in Europe to introduce a 5G standalone and Core network and with the encouraging feedback of our customers, we are now deploying this new technology commercially,” Jari Collin, CTO at Telia, said.