AT&T is strengthening its partnership with Nokia through a multi-year expansion deal aimed at enhancing its voice core network, enabling greater automation, efficiency, and the deployment of new customer-focused services.
Financial details were not disclosed.
This extended partnership will play a crucial role in supporting AT&T’s vision of delivering automated networks that improve operational efficiencies, accelerate service delivery and reduce deployment times.
By evolving its current Nokia IMS Voice Core to incorporate Voice over New Radio (VoNR), AT&T is taking a significant step toward the next generation of voice technology. AT&T has reported capital expenditures of $20.3 billion for 2024 versus $17.9 billion a year ago.
The upgraded IMS Voice Core will be a cloud-native architecture, offering flexible scaling and increased automation capabilities. This cloud-native approach will allow AT&T to streamline its operations, reduce costs, and improve time to market for new services. The ability to dynamically scale resources and automate key processes is expected to significantly enhance network performance while reducing the need for manual interventions. AT&T reported postpaid phone churn of 0.85 percent in Q4 2024.
Yigal Elbaz, Senior Vice President, Technology & Network Services at AT&T, emphasized the importance of automation and network optimization in the company’s broader strategy. He noted that AT&T is making substantial progress in achieving automation at all levels of its network and service operations. The collaboration with Nokia is a key component of this strategy, allowing AT&T to optimize its network functions and introduce new services that better address evolving customer needs.
A crucial part of this expansion involves AT&T utilizing Nokia’s voice core applications through the Nokia Cloud Platform (NCP). This will provide the infrastructure needed to simplify network management, enhance automation, and reduce manual efforts in network operations. The NCP aligns with Nokia’s broader multi-cloud strategy, which is designed to give operators like AT&T the flexibility to choose the infrastructure that best suits their operational and technological requirements.
Beyond the core network improvements, AT&T will also leverage Nokia’s Digital Operations software solutions to automate the design, delivery, and assurance of services at scale. These solutions, which are open and built to support multi-vendor networks, will enable AT&T to accelerate the deployment of new offerings while maintaining high levels of service quality. Automation in these areas will allow AT&T to manage increasingly complex network functions with greater ease and efficiency.
Raghav Sahgal, President of Cloud and Network Services at Nokia, noted that Nokia’s solutions will support AT&T in reducing network complexity, shortening deployment cycles, and streamlining operational workflows, ultimately enhancing the agility and efficiency of AT&T’s network and service portfolio.
Baburajan Kizhakedath
