Nokia Oyj has entered a strategic collaboration with Telia Finland to jointly develop and test artificial intelligence applications for 5G radio access networks (RAN). The partnership, announced ahead of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, aims to create commercial use cases, with a specific focus on mission-critical services that demand high reliability and performance.
Driving Network Efficiency and New Revenue
The initiative, termed AI-RAN, seeks to integrate AI directly into the network infrastructure that connects mobile devices to cellular towers. This integration promises a dual benefit: optimizing network operations for greater efficiency and potentially unlocking new income sources. A key exploration area involves monetizing spare computing capacity at the network edge by selling AI processing power to external customers.
Pallavi Mahajan, Nokia's Chief Technology and AI Officer, emphasized the need for networks to provide "deterministic, trusted connectivity." Stefan Jäverbring, Group Chief Technology Officer at Telia, stated the project is expected to "benefit our customers with increased network performance and reliability." Nokia plans to conduct live demonstrations of this AI-RAN technology at its MWC booth in Hall 3, stand 3B20.
Market and Competitive Context
The move comes as telecom vendors and operators globally seek to leverage AI to differentiate their 5G offerings and improve operational margins. Nokia is competing in a challenging market against rivals like Ericsson, Huawei, and a growing field of Open RAN specialists. The Open RAN movement, which decouples hardware and software, is pressuring traditional equipment makers to prove their solutions can thrive in complex, multi-vendor environments.
However, the commercialization of AI-RAN concepts remains in early stages. Industry observers note that converting idle network compute into a viable product involves significant hurdles, including managing power consumption, ensuring robust security, and determining the economic model for deploying additional hardware at cell sites.
Significant Shareholder Movement
In a separate disclosure, Nokia reported that investment firm FMR LLC's indirect holding in the company crossed the 5% threshold on March 2, 2026. According to the filing, FMR LLC now holds 5.04% of Nokia's total shares, representing 4.83% of the voting rights. Nokia currently has 5,742,239,696 shares and votes outstanding. This notable position by a major institutional investor often draws attention from the market.
Nokia's U.S.-listed shares saw a modest increase of approximately 1% in early premarket trading following the announcements. The broader industry context sees telecom companies at MWC shifting focus from 5G deployment to monetization, with automation and energy efficiency high on the agenda.
The collaboration between Nokia and Telia represents a concrete step toward making AI a core component of future network architecture. While the path to widespread adoption and revenue generation is complex, such partnerships are critical for testing real-world applications and moving the technology beyond the pilot phase. The industry will be watching closely for results from these trials and the subsequent impact on network performance and business models.
