Nokia Pushes AI‑RAN Into Global Trials With NVIDIA Tie-Up

Overview

• Nokia moved its AI-RAN program into active lab and live field trials on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, after earlier evaluation work across carriers.
• Operators in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East are now testing the system, with named participants including A1 Group, Chunghwa Telecom, du, e&, Mobily, stc, TPG Telecom and Zain Saudi.
• Company tests have shown more than 20 percent gains in spectral efficiency, a metric that measures how much data a network can carry on the same radio spectrum.
• Nokia reported €2.8 billion in AI and Cloud orders in Q2 2026 with roughly half expected to convert to revenue within 12 months, and markets reacted with a roughly 5–6 percent pre-market share increase after analyst coverage and the trial news.
• The program ties into Nokia’s wider buildout—deeper Infinera integration, planned U.S. fabs and packaging capacity increases—which could let operators run more edge AI workloads and delay costly spectrum or hardware upgrades.