T-Mobile and Nokia have announced a $3.5 billion deal that will see Nokia provide T-Mobile with “complete end-to-end 5G technology, software, and services” as the carrier continues to build out its 5G infrastructure.
“We are all in on 5G,” commented T-Mobile’s chief technology officer Neville Ray in the announcement. Nokia will help build T-Mobile’s 5G network on both the 600 MHz and 28 GHz millimeter wave portions of the spectrum, in accordance with the 3GPP’s 5G New Radio (NR) standards.
It’s a major move forward on both sides of the deal. T-Mobile is one of the first major carries to publicly announce an investment into 5G hardware, and it gives Nokia an edge over fellow 5G networking providers like Ericsson and Huawei, all of which are looking for new opportunities to expand as 4G network growth begins to slow. Plus, it’s yet another concrete sign that we’re finally getting closer to actual 5G networks beginning to roll out in the increasingly near future.
