Just days after Vodafone flogged its New Zealand business, Nokia has been unveiled as its 5G network partner.

Even though it has been sold, the company still has permission to keep the Vodafone brand and even has favourable roaming rates on other global Vodafone networks. So to all intents and purposes it’s the same setup, just with the returns ending up in someone else’s pockets.

The decision to go with Nokia for the 5G network was presumably months in the making and represents the continuation of a longstanding partnership, so the involvement of the new ownership was presumably minimal.

“We are excited to be joining forces with Vodafone New Zealand, our partner of over 20 years, to bring 5G to New Zealand,” said Tommi Uitto, Nokia’s President of Mobile Networks. “With this agreement, we will enable Vodafone New Zealand to deliver 5G services to their customers and create an even more connected society.”

“We are excited to be working with Nokia to deliver a commercial 5G network for Vodafone and New Zealand, building on our proud heritage of being first to deliver to Kiwis, the best mobile technology available at the time, including 2G, 3G, 4G and now 5G,” said Tony Baird, Technology Director, Vodafone New Zealand.

Vodafone New Zealand will launch 5G in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown later this year, which will be the first 5G network in the country. It looks like it’s buying the full monty of 5G stuff from Nokia, including RAN, core and design services, so this will serve as a decent shop window for Nokia.