Optus, an Australian telecom operator, has embarked on a strategic move with Nokia to advance its 5G capabilities. The agreement entails implementing Nokia’s Cloud Native Communication Suite (CNCS) to enhance 5G voice services. This venture marks an expansion of their existing partnership, focusing on refining network functions and integrating advanced automation.
The contract signifies a swap from Nokia’s competitor, believed to be Ericsson, with Nokia’s Core Network portfolio stepping in. The cloud-native essence of Nokia’s system allows for seamless integration and operation of both 4G and 5G cores within cloud-native environments. Optus anticipates this system to efficiently serve over 10 million customers with dependable 5G voice services.
Optus aims for operational efficiency, achieved through reduced energy consumption, with the system running on Red Hat OpenShift, a hybrid cloud platform. This move aligns with Optus’s adoption of container as a service (CaaS) frameworks.
According to Tony Baird, Optus’s Chief Technology Officer, “Nokia CNCS provides us with a new and highly flexible pathway that will allow us to improve network resiliency, security and enhance the subscriber experience with better and faster time-to-market services, through both on-premise and cloud deployment that assists in better quality and customer experience through a matrix of intelligent automation tools.”
From Nokia’s perspective, Raghav Sahgal, President of Cloud and Network Services, added, “We are pleased to further expand our Optus collaboration with Nokia’s cloud-native CNCS architecture and accelerate the delivery of new 5G services in multi-cloud environments with intelligent automation and intent-based operations. By simplifying network complexity, CNCS allows operators to respond faster to customer needs and deliver a superior, frictionless experience.”
What sets this deployment apart is the simplification of network complexities, enabling providers to quickly adapt to customer needs while optimizing for energy efficiency. The deployment of CNCS aims to create an operationally efficient environment, enhancing flexibility in deploying voice services rapidly.
