Nokia confirmed to provide Dish/AWS 5G standalone core

It turns out there are some telecoms things even the mighty AWS can’t do, so Nokia has been drafted in to deploy Dish’s 5G SA core.

Nokia claims this is the first deployment of a 5G SA core in the public cloud. It follows the announcement a couple of months ago that AWS (Amazon Web Services) will be taking care of as much Dish’s 5G network as it can handle. It seems the core was one step too far, so Nokia gets a nice, high-profile deal win.

“Running the Nokia 5G SA core on AWS will optimize our network operations to launch new software and services rapidly and efficiently, enabling the integration of countless innovative use cases for customers,” said Dish’s Chief Network Officer, Marc Rouanne, formerly of Nokia. “This collaboration is an important step forward on our mission to deploy the United States’ first cloud-native, OpenRAN-based 5G network.”

“We are pleased to break new ground in the telecom industry with AWS and Dish leveraging our cloud-native core to bring innovative 5G capabilities to enterprises and consumers,” said Raghav Sahgal, President, Cloud and Network Services at Nokia. “This collaboration places AWS and Dish at the forefront of the industry, delivering key 5G benefits such as agility and scalability to their customers over Nokia’s proven distributed core architecture.”

Perhaps this deal was one of the drivers behind Nokia’s recent decision to create a special facility devoted to the development of OpenRAN in the US. Coming so soon after the news that Vodafone is using Ericsson for is UK and German 5G SA cores, this is a handy win for Nokia, although it should be noted it was first revealed last year. The fact that it will be getting its hands dirty in a cutting-edge deployment environment is pretty handy too.