Espoo, Finland – Nokia and MEXT, the Turkish Employers’ Association of Metal Industries Technology Center, announced today that they are partnering to advance digital transformation of the Turkish industrial sector and enable the local ecosystem to jointly work on 5G private wireless innovation. Nokia will deploy its 5G private wireless Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) solution at the MEXT Technology Center, connecting more than 10 manufacturing use cases on display and adding more.

MEXT is operating one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive digital transformation and capability building centers. Located in Istanbul, Atasehir, it supports Turkish industrial companies along their digital transformation journey towards Industry 4.0. The Technology Center includes an ecosystem of more than 50 globally recognized technology providers, universities, and institutions. Nokia will become a partner of MEXT and collaborate within this ecosystem, enabling 5G technology experience in the industrial context, although 5G is not currently commercially available in Turkey.

Ozgur Erzincan, Country Manager Turkey at Nokia said: “It is our great pleasure to collaborate with MEXT in the context of digitalization of the industrial manufacturing sector in Turkey, a key industry for the Turkish economy. Although 5G is not yet a commercial reality in Turkey, there is a lot of interest from Turkish enterprises to explore the possibilities of 5G private wireless solutions. For us at Nokia, it is of utmost importance to support a local 5G vertical ecosystem and be the trailblazer in the Turkish Industry to leverage 5G for increased competitiveness.”

Efe Erdem, Executive Director of MEXT Technology Center, said: “MEXT builds on and enhances the technology and innovation capacity of manufacturing companies, encourages them to define their digital transformation roadmaps and start the execution as well as foster their engagement with world class technology providers on their transformation journey. With the deployment of private wireless Nokia Digital Automation Cloud in our technology center, the whole Turkish industry will experience a cutting-edge 5G solution, which comes with Nokia’s expertise of hundreds of private wireless deployments around the globe.”

Nokia has deployed mission-critical networks to more than 2,200 leading enterprise customers in the transport, energy, large enterprise, manufacturing, webscale, and public sector segments around the globe. The company has extended its expertise to more than 485 large private wireless customers worldwide across an array of sectors.