Nokia To Add Open Interfaces To Its Telecom Equipment

Nokia has become the first major telecom equipment maker to commit to adding open interfaces in its products that will allow mobile operators to build networks that are not tied to a vendor. Reuters reports: The new technology, dubbed Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN), aims to reduce reliance on any one vendor by making every part of a telecom network interoperable and allowing operators to choose different suppliers for different components. Currently, Nokia along with Ericsson and Huawei supplies most of the equipment for building telecom networks and mobile operators can only pick one for each part of their network.

As part of the implementation plan, Nokia plans to deploy Open RAN interfaces in its baseband and radio units, a spokesman said. An initial set of Open RAN functionalities will become available this year, while the full suite of interfaces is expected to be available in 2021, the company said. Nokia, unlike other vendors, had been promising to participate in the development of open RAN technology and have joined several industry alliances.

Sounds good

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

The other manufacturers will have to follow suit or be at a disadvantage.

Re: Standards are great

[stinkyjak]

That is what Entity Framework is for...

Good

[maz2331]

Now when is someone going to demand that networking vendors stop locking-down SFP/SFP+/QSFP+ interfaces to only use "approved" transcievers when they are all identical between manufacturers, except for a code programmed into a little bit of flash?

Re:

[AmazinglySmooth]

As long as these vendors think they can offer something that others cannot, they will continue to protect their IP so they can get paid above the market rate.

Re:

[Paul Carver]

Now when is someone going to demand that networking vendors stop locking-down SFP/SFP+/QSFP+ interfaces to only use "approved" transcievers when they are all identical between manufacturers, except for a code programmed into a little bit of flash?

I think it was about 5 years ago, but may have been longer. It depends on which vendors you're buying from.

This is news to me.

[jez9999]

Nokia still exist?

Re:

[ebh]

Not in the handset market, but definitely in the core wireless networks market. Ever since Alcatel bought Lucent and Nokia bought Alcatel-Lucent, there has no longer been any American maker of wireless (LTE, 5G, etc.) gear.

Re:

[TeknoHog]

I have a Nokia handset from 2018. When they sold the phone division to M$, they could not sell phones for a few years, but now they do again. Of course it's not the old Nokia. Their phones seem to be either cheap standard Android toys or nostalgic re-imagings of their classics.