Finland’s Nokia and Germany’s Deutsche Telekom telecommunications companies, have announced an expansion of their strategic partnership, focusing on the development of AI-native and Open RAN technologies.
This collaboration aims to accelerate the transition toward cloud-based, disaggregated mobile networks by deepening joint work on Cloud RAN and open interfaces. A primary objective of the program is to integrate Nokia’s baseband units with third-party O-RAN compliant radio units, supporting Deutsche Telekom’s strategy for multivendor network flexibility and independent service management.
The partnership also establishes a co-creation framework for AI-native RAN (AI-RAN) to introduce autonomous functions across cloud, edge, and radio domains. Key areas of technical focus include AI-powered receivers, predictive network optimization, and adaptive beamforming to improve spectral efficiency and user experience. These innovations will undergo validation in both laboratory settings and real-world field trials at Deutsche Telekom Labs. By embedding AI across network layers through standardized interfaces, the two companies intend to build highly automated, programmable infrastructure capable of adapting to shifting service demands.
