BT has struck a deal with Nokia to use its radio equipment on the EE 5G network, helping to fill the gap left by Huawei's exclusion from the UK market for national security reasons. For 5G, most operators plan to adopt multi-vendor strategies that allow them to mix and match radio innovations from different vendors. BT already uses Nokia equipment in its mobile network, but also expected to rely heavily on Huawei. The UK government's ban on Huawei means that BT will not be able to buy anything from Huawei after this year and will have to remove its products from its infrastructure by 2027. These restrictions have raised fears that reduced competition will delay rollouts, reduce the innovation and increase costs. BT itself estimated that there would be a £500 million bill.
BT Nokia 5G
However, BT has taken steps to mitigate the potential consequences, extending its pre-existing relationship with Nokia to ensure that EE's 5G network rollout stays on track and will be able to offer superior mobile connectivity and new applications. Generation. Existing EE sites using Nokia 5G radio equipment will be upgraded, while sites in other parts of the country will be equipped with new radio and base station technology. Nokia will also provide management software that will increase capacity, increase profitability and reduce latency. The two will also work on upgrading EE's 2G and 4G networks, while there is also the possibility of collaboration with OpenRAN. The deal immediately makes Nokia Nokia BT Nokia's largest network partner and both parties are confident that expanding their partnership will allow EE to maintain its early leadership in the UK 5G space and achieve ambitions. converged BT networks. “In a competitive and rapidly changing market, it is essential that we make the right technology decisions,” said Philip Jansen, CEO of BT. “With this next step in our successful relationship with Nokia, we will continue to lead the deployment of fixed and mobile networks to deliver unique customer experiences. The deal is a big boost for Nokia, which has struggled of late due to the double pressure of intense competition in the telecom infrastructure market and the high cost of developing 5G technologies. To win customers, Nokia is marketing itself as a "one-stop shop" for telecom operators and companies with a portfolio spanning radio, transport and network core layers. The main pillars of its proposition are software capabilities that enable automation and enable more efficient remote network management, as well as the ability for customers to reuse existing spectrum and hardware resources. "I am delighted that BT has extended its partnership with Nokia in 5G RAN, making Nokia the largest infrastructure partner for Nokia BT," added Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark, who replaced Rajeev Suri in August. “Our two companies have worked together for over a quarter of a century to bring best-in-class connectivity to people across the UK. We are proud to support the evolution of BT's 5G network and look forward to working even more closely in the years to come.