• Services will enable operators to capitalize on opportunities and realize business goals on the path to 5G

• Services range from strategy envisioning to design and implementation, optimizing the journey to 5G with timely business, technology and operational transformation

• New services leverage Nokia and Nokia Bell Labs' breadth of technology, transformation and services expertise and tools for telco cloud, radio design and optimization

6 September, 2016

Espoo, Finland - Nokia is to launch a set of services that will enable operators to leverage the benefits of 5G technology in order to realize their individual business goals in the most effective way. Nokia 5G Acceleration Services will help operators develop a plan for their business, network and operational transformation to prepare them for the 5G programmable world.

The advent of 5G will provide operators with opportunities to serve a diverse range of vertical industries and enterprises as they enable applications such as smart cities, automated driving, remote healthcare and full automation of homes and businesses. Leveraging technologies available today such as mobile edge computing, cloud and Software-Defined Networking, 5G will deliver the ultra-reliable, low-latency networks needed to address a myriad of business possibilities.

Nokia 5G Acceleration Services will assist operators in translating their 5G vision into a tailored transformation plan. Nokia will collaborate with operators to prepare and design the unique evolution of multi-vendor networks, providing a comprehensive technology and business analysis of an operator's current situation as well as guidance on the steps they should take to transform their operations. By defining the pace of investment and introduction of new technologies operators will be able to capitalize on the opportunities and deliver at the optimal time.

Leveraging the breadth of global telco-cloud consulting experience and technology and services expertise within Nokia and Bell Labs Consulting, 5G Acceleration Services will now deliver a modular set of transformation support including:

• Building a solid business case using:

• Collaborative customer workshops to help operators define a phased strategy for transformation and the implications on their business, technology, and operations.

• A techno-economic analysis using scenarios that meet the operators' goals for 5G to optimize network evolution investment

• A 5G spectrum assessment, allowing operators to optimize spectrum resources to deliver the capacity needed to realize their 5G goals

• Planning a staged architecture and operational evolution using:

• Technology workshops to provide an in-depth view of the impact of 5G technology on network architecture, end-to-end network planning and deployment and how it can be applied to meet business objectives

• Goal-driven 5G radio access network design to meet the performance and traffic demands of chosen scenarios

• Building a solid foundation to 5G by allowing operators to leverage Nokia's extensive services expertise to help them ramp-up their network, organization and business capabilities and become 5G-ready.

Andy Hicks, research director, IDC's EMEA Telecommunications group said:

"5G isn't just '4G 2.0.' For one thing, this time the use cases are developing ahead of the technical standard. That's healthy for the industry, but will also require networks to support myriad performance profiles fairly rapidly. Operators thus have to make sure that their 5G evolution plans incorporate both upgrades to their networks and advancements in their operational capabilities. If they can start to monetize new use cases while still migrating toward 5G, so much the better."

Igor Leprince, head of Global Services at Nokia, said:

"Operators can already begin to plan their path to 5G, building the foundation of the programmable world with cloud-based technologies. Working in a consultative mode Nokia 5G Acceleration Services can minimize the complexity of this transformation, creating a plan that will allow operators to migrate optimally to 5G to capitalize on new business opportunities. We are already working with our customers on 5G co-development agreements, and by leveraging our transformation services and Bell Labs Consulting expertise we can help operators build a solid business case for their 5G transformation."

Did you know

• Nokia is involved in several 5G-related industry projects in Europe, including the 5G Public Private Partnership project 5G NORMA (5G Novel Radio Multiservice adaptive network Architecture) and collaborations with leading universities across the world, to make 5G technology viable and future-proof.

• Nokia is running 5G innovation projects with major operators including China Mobile, NTT DOCOMO, Korea Telecom, SK Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and Verizon Wireless.

• Nokia is optimizing the operator path to 5G with its 4.5G, 4.5G Pro and 4.9G technologies, allowing operators to implement major increases in capacity, coverage and speed, when and where they are needed to leverage new business opportunities as they prepare their networks.

• Nokia demonstrated the world's first 5G-ready network using AirScale working together with its Cloud Packet Core, running on a Nokia AirFrame data center platform at 5G World.