On Thursday, Nokia announced it entered into a five-year partnership with AT&T for use of Nokia’s C-Band Solutions Portfolio. The C-Band portfolio, which includes Nokia’s 5G technology, will be deployed to AT&T customers across parts of the U.S. with the first phase opening up toward the end of 2021.
The deal will help AT&T to increase its network capacity to support 5G coverage, both indoor and outdoor, and will include Nokia’s MIMO antenna solutions, macro remote radio heads and next-generation AirScale baseband equipment, all of which are part of its C-Band portfolio.
Nokia was the first company to demonstrate a live C-Band network in the U.S., according to the press release, and a number of companies including AT&T have sought to integrate Nokia’s technology to digitally transform their businesses.
By the end of this year, AT&T will deploy the first phase of Nokia’s C-Band, which at auction opened up 280 MHz of spectrum with 100 MHz of spectrum available for 5G deployments. Support for 5G standalone networks, non-standalone networks, cloud-based implementations and Open RAN products are also included.
“AT&T is committed to bringing the power of 5G to businesses and communities across the nation, and our C-Band deployments with Nokia will help add 5G capacity where it’s needed,” said Igal Elbaz, AT&T’s senior vice president of wireless and access technology, in the release.
Originally Published at BENZINGA