Nokia AI-RAN development reached a new milestone at MWC26 Barcelona, as the Finnish vendor and Nvidia detailed operator integrations and functional tests of GPU-accelerated radio access network technology. The two companies presented results from trials with T-Mobile US, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, and SoftBank Corp, alongside a broader ecosystem expansion.
Nokia AI-RAN Tests and Operator Trials
Nokia completed tests of its artificial intelligence and RAN workloads on Nvidia’s GPU-accelerated platform. The companies stated the tests validate the readiness of AI-RAN for real-world deployments and its ability to deliver enhanced user experiences and unlock new monetisation opportunities.
At T-Mobile’s AI-RAN Innovation Centre in the United States, Nokia’s AirScale Massive MIMO radio operating in the 3.7GHz band supported use cases including video streaming, generative AI queries, and AI-based video captioning. These ran on the Nvidia Grace Hopper 200 platform.
Southeast Asia’s First AI RAN-Powered 5G Call
Nokia and Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison achieved what they described as Southeast Asia’s first AI RAN-powered Layer 3 5G call. The call used IOH’s open, cloud-native network with Nokia’s AirScale remote radio heads and RAN software accelerated by Nvidia’s GPUs.
Nokia stated the milestone proves AI and RAN workloads can run simultaneously on shared GPU infrastructure in a live operator environment. The company added this development paves the way for distributed AI intelligence, making 5G networks more efficient and sustainable.
SoftBank Integration and Ecosystem Expansion
Nokia and SoftBank Corp demonstrated how spare AI-RAN compute capacity, identified by SoftBank’s Aitras orchestrator, can run third-party AI tasks. Nokia stated the integration represents a major advance in evolving the RAN into an AI-enabled platform capable of hosting third-party AI workloads beyond traditional connectivity.
Nokia also expanded its AI-RAN partner ecosystem. New partners Quanta and SuperMicro joined Dell Technologies, with Red Hat OpenShift used for orchestration. Additionally, BT Group, Elisa, NTT Docomo, and Vodafone are engaged in trials with Nvidia and Nokia to confirm AI-RAN readiness for real-world deployments.
“Now, 2026 is where we will do our first commercial trial, and 2027 is where we will have our first commercial release out.”
Pallavi Mahajan, Chief Technology and AI Officer, Nokia
Industry Leaders Address AI Traffic and Open Networks
Nvidia CEO and president Justin Hotard stated AI already generates 1.3 trillion annual sessions, over 100 trillion tokens daily, and 77 exabytes of monthly traffic, predominantly mobile-based. He noted AI traffic is highly variable and dynamic, unlike previous linear patterns in voice, data, and video.
“What we believe is that no single company can lead the transformation of AI networks. It needs rich and broad industry partnership.”
Justin Hotard, CEO and President, Nvidia
Meanwhile, Nokia and long-time rival Ericsson announced a collaboration to advance open standards and promote compatibility across their rApp portfolios. The two vendors stated the effort supports multivendor SMO ecosystems, giving operators greater choice and accelerating the transition toward autonomous networks.
John Saw, president of technology and CTO for T-Mobile, said advanced 5G and 6G networks will serve as the connective tissue for physical AI — systems interacting with the real economy through devices such as robots and vehicles. Nvidia’s Ronnie Vasishta, SVP for telecom, added that networks must evolve into software-defined, open compute fabrics to support AI workloads alongside traditional telecom functions.
Commercial Timeline and Future Outlook
Nokia’s Mahajan confirmed the company plans its first commercial trial in 2026, with a first commercial release targeted for 2027. The broader industry push toward AI-native 6G networks, with operators across Asia validating GPU-accelerated RAN, signals a significant shift in how mobile infrastructure will be designed and operated in the coming years.
