Nokia Corp ADR shares increased by 5.3% in pre‑market trading on Wednesday following the company’s announcement that it is expanding AI‑RAN (Artificial Intelligence‑Radio Access Network) proofs of concept and live trials with a set of telecommunications operators spanning North America, Europe, Asia‑Pacific and the Middle East. The operators named in the announcement are A1 Group, Chunghwa Telecom, du, e&, Mobily, stc, TPG Telecom and Zain Saudi, indicating a broad geographic rollout of the technology.
The AI‑RAN platform integrates Nokia’s AI‑native anyRAN software with NVIDIA’s Aerial RAN Computer. Nokia states that the platform has already achieved more than 20% improvement in spectral efficiency through AI‑driven radio innovations, and it has a roadmap to deliver additional software‑driven efficiency gains in the years 2027 and 2028. The solution is designed to turn traditional radio networks into programmable platforms capable of supporting both standard connectivity and emerging AI workloads, thereby reducing operators’ reliance on conventional hardware refresh cycles.
Emma Falck, President of Mobile Infrastructure at Nokia, said, “Together with NVIDIA and our growing ecosystem of partners, we are helping operators transform their networks into intelligent, programmable platforms that can support both connectivity and AI services.”
The announcement builds on earlier Nokia milestones, including the launch of what the company describes as the industry’s first commercial AI‑native RAN platform and prior evaluations with T‑Mobile, SoftBank and Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison. Trials with previously announced operators such as NTT DOCOMO are reported to be ongoing.
Overall, the expanded trial programme underscores Nokia’s strategy to leverage AI to enhance network capacity and spectral efficiency, addressing rising uplink demand and new traffic patterns driven by AI applications, while offering operators new monetisation opportunities.