Page 24 - SAMENA Trends - March-April 2025

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Indosat, Nokia and Nvidia to Develop and Deploy AI-RAN

Indonesian telco Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison said on Wednesday expansion of the solution deployment slated for 2026. Indosat
it has signed a MoU with Nokia and Nvidia at Mobile World president director and CEO Vikram Sinha said the deal makes
Congress 2025 to deploy AI-RAN infrastructure in Indosat’s it the first operator in Southeast Asia and the third globally to
network. The deal will see Indosat integrate Nokia's 5G Cloud build a commercial AI-RAN network. “By embedding AI into our
RAN solution and Nvidia’a AI Aerial platform to create a unified radio access network, we’re not just enhancing connectivity –
accelerated computing infrastructure for hosting both AI and we’re building a nationwide AI-powered ecosystem that will fuel
RAN workloads. Under the terms of the MoU, Indosat, Nokia and innovation across industries,” he said in a statement. As part of
Nvidia will develop, test and deploy the AI-RAN solution, with an the same initiative, Indosat, Nokia, and NVIDIA will also work
initial focus on bringing AI inferencing workloads on Nvidia AI with Indonesian universities and research institutions to drive AI-
Aerial, followed by the integration of RAN workloads on the same RAN development by supporting academic programs to foster AI
platform. In addition to delivering gains in network performance, innovation in telecom applications and accelerate breakthroughs
spectral efficiency, and energy consumption, AI-RAN will also lay in AI-driven network optimization, spectral efficiency, and energy
the groundwork for an eventual software upgrade to 6G, Indosat consumption. The deal marks the latest AI-based collaboration
said. Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, added with Indosat and Nvidia, who signed an MoU at last year’s MWC to
that AI-RAN will enable Indosat to share infrastructure costs across collaborate on establishing Indonesia as a leading player in the AI
multiple applications, and maximize its return on investment while sector. The MoU included plans for Indosat’s ICT arm Lintasarta to
unlocking new revenue streams via AI-driven services. “When you launch a GPUaaS offering called GPU Merdaka, which was unveiled
combine AI with RAN, you create an engine for future innovation,” in August 2024. It’s also one of a number of AI-RAN announcements
Uitto, said ina joint statement. “With our 5G Cloud RAN platform, at MWC25, perhaps a key one being Ericsson and Japanese telco
Indosat can transform its network into a multi-purpose computing SoftBank – who formed the AI-RAN Alliance at last year’s MWC –
grid that leverages the synergies of AI-accelerated computing.” reporting their progress in developing AI-RAN. Among other things,
The three companies will kick off the project by establishing a Ericsson and Softbank said they have demonstrated a prototype of
5G AI-RAN lab in Surabaya in early 2025 for joint development, Ericsson Cloud RAN software running on the Grace CPU of Nvidia’s
testing and validation. Indosat plans to launch a small-scale GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip, and defined an architecture to
commercial pilot of AI Inferencing workloads running on NVIDIA enable orchestration of both RAN and AI applications on the same
AI-RAN infrastructure in the second half of this year, with further infrastructure.

Nokia Completes 5G Equipment Deliveries to Vodafone Idea

vice president and country head at Nokia India. Nokia indicated
that it is on track to deliver more than 60,000 technology sites —
including thousands of new 4G sites — to Vodafone Idea by the
end of March. To enhance service quality in densely populated
urban areas, Nokia noted it is implementing ultra-lean sites as
part of its support for Vodafone Idea’s expansion. “Nokia remains
our valued long-term partner, consistently delivering exceptional
support. The rapid 4G expansion will significantly enhance our
coverage and capacity, enabling us to provide an exceptional
customer experience as we move toward launching 5G services,”
said Vodafone Idea CTO Jagbir Singh. Nokia further stated that it
is supplying the latest 4G and 5G baseband and radio modules to
Finnish telecom equipment provider Nokia confirmed it has help the Indian telco strengthen its 4G network through new site
successfully delivered all necessary 5G gear to Indian operator deployments, technology advancements and increased spectrum
Vodafone Idea in preparation for its upcoming 5G rollout. bandwidth at existing locations. To facilitate Vodafone Idea’s 5G
Vodafone Idea is set to launch its 5G network in major cities, with deployment, Nokia said it is leveraging its AirScale portfolio, which
Mumbai being the first to go live around mid-March, followed by features Multi Radio Access Technology (RAT) baseband units and
Delhi, Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Patna by April, the company radio modules powered by the energy-efficient ReefShark System-
has confirmed. Vodafone Idea has already commenced 5G trial on-Chip technology. This upcoming 5G deployment follows a two-
runs in Mumbai. “As the demand for reliable and high-performing year delay since Vodafone Idea participated in the 2021 spectrum
networks continues to grow, our collaboration with Vodafone Idea auctions, where rival operators Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio
will help address the emerging requirements of retail consumers Infocomm launched their 5G services soon after. Rival operators
and businesses. We achieved very fast delivery and deployment Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel already offer 5G services
of 5G and 4G sites for Vodafone Idea,” said Tarun Chhabra, senior nationwide and operate an extensive 4G network.

24 MARCH-APRIL 2025