As the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region accelerates its digital transformation, Nokia is playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of connectivity. In advanced markets like the GCC, the company is spearheading 5G deployment and evolution, ensuring operators can maximize network capabilities while preparing for the next phase of innovation.
In an exclusive interview with Telecom Review, Mikko Lavanti, SVP, Mobile Networks, Nokia MEA, elaborated on how Nokia is helping communications service providers (CSPs) and enterprises enhance productivity and increase efficiency through its innovative network solutions.
How is Nokia supporting the digital transformation in the MEA region?
Nokia is supporting the digital transformation in the region through various perspectives:
- Building Mobile Digital Infrastructure: Nokia is leading the pack as the preferred partner for mobile operators in the region, deploying 5G networks and ensuring these networks are best-in-class in terms of performance and energy consumption. MEA is a diverse region in terms of technological maturity and adoption, which is why we see a strong demand to build 4G networks and address our customers’ 4G capacity, network evolution, and rural connectivity needs.
- Powering Enterprises and Industry Connectivity: Nokia is aiding enterprises in the region with their digital transformation journey and encouraging them to embrace Industry 4.0 innovations and connectivity improvement. This will enhance productivity and increase efficiency.
- Fostering Innovation and Collaboration: In our pursuit to support our customers, CSPs, and enterprises in the region in reaching their business objectives, we intend to not lose sight of the importance of innovation and collaboration. Over the last year, we have launched innovation labs in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Morocco, consequently fostering innovation. We have also collaborated with local partners on region-specific solutions. For two consecutive years, we have hosted the Nokia Partner Ecosystem Summit in the region. In 2024, it was held in Riyadh and drew contributors from all areas of the telecom ecosystem to discuss and propose ways to accelerate the digital transformation in our region.
- The Nokia Way: Finally, we take pride in supporting our customers across the region while focusing on numerous critical aspects:
- Ethical and Transparent Business Practices: These practices are at the heart of everything we do. In fact, Nokia was voted ‘one of the most ethical companies in the world’ for the eighth consecutive year.
- Developing Local Communities: We focus on equipping young talent across the region through internships, academic collaborations, and other initiatives.
- Health and Safety: We prioritize the safety of our employees and subcontractors, ensuring they return home safely to their families. This commitment is reinforced through awareness initiatives, comprehensive safety training, and the strict implementation of safety procedures across our operations and subcontractor partnerships.
Taking advanced markets, such as the GCC, into consideration, how is Nokia supporting 5G deployment and evolution, and what are the next steps?
As highlighted briefly above, Nokia is at the forefront of 5G deployments in all advanced markets, where we are supporting our customers located in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and many other regions with their 5G deployments by providing cutting-edge 5G solutions.
For example, in 2024, we introduced our latest-generation Massive MIMO Habrok platform, which improves performance while significantly reducing power consumption. We also introduced our latest software innovations, improving network speeds, user experience, and enabling our customers to introduce new 5G spectrum.
We also ensure that these networks not only offer the best performance through our software features and product capabilities but also through our market-leading network performance optimization (NPO) services and tools. As we continue to drive innovation in advanced markets, we are leading the way in 5G Standalone (5G SA) deployments, introducing reduced capability (RedCap) technology, and evolving towards 5G-Advanced.
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Can you elaborate on Nokia’s AI integration initiatives for network automation and enhancement?
We are actively driving the telecom-AI ecosystem forward by incorporating AI into our products and services and allowing our customers to reap the true potential of AI. Nokia is a key player and founding member of the AI RAN Alliance, holding two chair positions. Globally, we are collaborating with leading players such as T-Mobile, NVIDIA, and Softbank. Regionally, we have partnered with leading operators such as e&, stc, and Zain KSA. We have signed numerous MoUs with key partners to drive a shared vision and collaboratively embed AI into their networks.
Nokia has introduced AI into many of its solutions, including hardware analytics, design services, digital twins, an AI digital assistant for technical support and, finally, we embedded AI into our market-leading MantaRay platform, which facilitates network optimization and automation.
Last year, at Hajj, we were very proud to announce the successful deployment of our MantaRay Cognitive SON—our AI-powered, self-organizing networks solution—into stc Group’s commercial network. This leading platform for network optimization and automation displayed impressive results during the event and significantly improved network quality autonomously, reducing manual intervention and cost while maintaining best-in-class performances.
5G monetization is a critical concern. How is Nokia collaborating with private mobile network operators to drive network monetization forward?
At Nokia, we have increased our focus on private wireless connectivity for enterprises as it not only allows them to enhance their productivity and efficiency but also allows operators to monetize their 5G networks by offering dedicated slices for enterprises or by partnering with them to provide industry-leading solutions.
We continue to maintain our reputation as a major enterprise vendor by raising awareness of key use cases in specific industry verticals such as utilities, the public sector, and oil and gas. We are already working with some of the major utility and oil and gas providers in the GCC and helping them with their digital transformation journeys.
What’s next for Nokia in terms of innovation and network evolution?
Looking ahead, we are working closely with our customers and partners to shape the next phase of network evolution, focusing on virtualization and open networks. With our advanced customers, we have been actively exploring the benefits of Cloud-RAN, conducting multiple trials and proof-of-concept projects across the region. Recently, we achieved breakthrough commercial deployments with stc and du, marking significant milestones in the adoption of Cloud RAN. At LEAP this year, we demonstrated the first in-building, shareable Cloud-RAN deployment, highlighting our commitment to pioneering next-generation network solutions.
Furthermore, we are actively exploring new business models such as NaaS (Network-as-a-Service) as we look for ways to catalyze network deployments and foster new revenue streams with our customers and partners.
Finally, we are engaging in early discussions with some of our advanced customers regarding 6G and next-generation connectivity, where AI will play a crucial role in advancing networks to the next level, enhancing performance, energy efficiency, and autonomous capabilities. We have initiated MoU’s with leading customers to explore early use cases and create a strong foundation for continued collaboration.
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