Nokia claims it’s breaking new ground with a 5G certification programme

• Will offer professionals across the ICT industry two levels of certification 
• Aimed at those with roles in both service providers and enterprises
• Companies will benefit from faster realization of 5G strategies, Nokia claims

Nokia has today announced that it’s launching a programme to certify professional understanding of 5G technology and the ‘end-to-end’ advantages of 5G networks. The Nokia Bell Labs End-to-End 5G Certification Program is claimed to be the first-of-its-kind  and will offer the broad ICT industry two levels of certification – Associate and Professional – designed to deliver essential knowledge covering everything from the basics of 5G networks to professional level planning and design.

The vendor-agnostic certification program is designed for business and technology professionals at communications service providers and enterprises. By having their employees gain a greater understanding and proficiency in the application of end-to-end 5G technologies, companies will benefit from faster realization of 5G strategies and the competitive advantage of providing high-value 5G services.

According to Marcus Weldon, Nokia CTO and President of Nokia Bell Labs, “5G is dramatically changing the communications landscape, providing the need for a broad, technical program that provides professionals not only with a firm understanding of end-to-end 5G technologies but also the skills to apply them effectively when creating network solutions in support of emerging business opportunities. 

“As 5G investments are still in relatively early stages, he says, “we feel the timing of this  is ideal, ensuring the coming years of intense 5G activity have profound, positive impacts for consumers and industries alike.”

The Nokia Bell Labs says it will officially launch the program at the end of this month, with the introduction of its Associate Level Certification and End-to-End 5G Foundation course. Professional level certifications and courses will follow later in 2020.

Nokia claims the course will be vendor-agnostic but makes a point of explaining that it is the only vendor with an end-to-end product and services portfolio that covers all 5G network elements, including radio, core, cloud and transport as well as management, automation and security. So by implication is the vendor best placed to oversee an end-to-end certification course. 

It offers operators and enterprise customers a simple and efficient step-wise upgrade to existing radio access, core and transport domains, helping customers identify a faster path to 5G. Approximately 60% of Nokia’s 5G customers have selected more than just New Radio from its end-to-end portfolio.

The way things are fast shaping up however, means that the way ahead won’t be defined quite so much by an idealised ‘end-end-end’ 5G architecture, but more likely by open standards, open source code and cloud native software in expectation of the  much more disaggregated and multi-vendor network of the future. 

Nokia says its overall approach offers operators and enterprise customers a simple and efficient step-wise upgrade to existing radio access, core and transport domains, helping customers identify a faster path to 5G. Approximately 60% of Nokia’s 5G customers have selected more than just New Radio from its end-to-end portfolio, it claims.