Nokia and Orange are expanding their strategic relationship to evaluate AI-RAN architectures built on Nokia’s anyRAN 5G software and NVIDIA AI infrastructure, as the companies test how AI can move deeper into the radio access network. The initiative focuses on improving network performance, boosting energy efficiency, and opening the door to new radio-based services as operators prepare for a longer transition from 5G Advanced toward 6G.
The collaboration sets up a structured co-innovation framework in which Nokia and Orange will jointly identify, design, and evaluate AI-RAN use cases. The companies said they will study how GPU-based radio processing could improve radio performance through more advanced receivers, and how AI can be integrated into the RAN to support functions such as predictive optimization, scheduling, beamforming, power control, and sensing. Orange will use the work to better understand how AI-enabled RAN functions could fit into live operational networks across Europe and the Middle East and Africa.
Nokia also positioned the project as part of a broader path toward 6G-ready, software-defined radio networks. The companies said they will explore how AI-RAN techniques could improve spectral efficiency in current and future spectrum bands, including upper 6 GHz, while enabling more flexible use of compute resources. The announcement follows a series of Nokia AI-RAN initiatives unveiled around MWC 2026, including collaborations with Telia, TIM Brasil, and Deutsche Telekom, underscoring Nokia’s push to link cloud RAN, AI inference, and radio optimization more tightly with NVIDIA-backed infrastructure.
- Nokia and Orange will jointly evaluate AI-RAN technologies using Nokia anyRAN 5G software and NVIDIA AI infrastructure.
- The work will examine GPU-based radio processing for improved receivers and tighter AI integration into RAN functions.
- Targeted gains include spectral efficiency, radio performance, predictive optimization, automation, and energy efficiency.
- The collaboration also explores support for new services such as integrated sensing and communication.
- Orange said the initiative will help assess operational deployment across Europe and the Middle East and Africa.
- Nokia framed the effort as part of a software-driven migration path toward 6G-ready networks.
“Orange is committed to building more efficient, adaptable and sustainable networks. By collaborating with Nokia and NVIDIA on AI-RAN, we can better understand how the AI-native architecture enabled by AI-RAN can improve the efficiency of key radio algorithms — such as scheduling, beamforming and power optimization — enhancing both spectral efficiency and energy performance, while also enabling advanced capabilities like predictive optimization and radio sensing,” said Laurent Leboucher, Group CTO, Orange.
🌐 Analysis: This announcement adds another major European operator to Nokia’s current AI-RAN campaign, which increasingly centers on pairing radio software with accelerated compute from NVIDIA. The strategic question is whether AI-RAN will move beyond trials and targeted optimization into a repeatable commercial architecture that operators can justify on both capacity and energy economics.
Nokia’s recent activity suggests it wants to establish early leadership in that transition. Competitors including Ericsson and Samsung are also pursuing AI-native RAN strategies, while the broader industry continues to test how AI processing, cloud-native RAN, and 6G-era sensing functions can coexist on shared infrastructure. Orange’s involvement matters because it gives Nokia a large multi-country operator environment in which to test whether those ideas can scale operationally.
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