Nokia Orange AI-RAN partnership has been launched as Nokia and Orange have partnered to jointly develop AI-RAN use cases, supported by Nvidia’s AI infrastructure, to explore how emerging capabilities can enhance network performance and energy efficiency. The collaboration will operate through a co-innovation framework, with both companies identifying, designing, and evaluating new AI-RAN capabilities for mobile networks.
The Nokia Orange AI-RAN initiative will focus on several technical areas. The companies will explore how GPU-based radio processors can boost radio performance with more advanced receivers, and how artificial intelligence can be tightly integrated into the RAN to improve performance and support new services such as sensing. The partnership also aims to bring greater automation and intelligence to both cloud-based and purpose-built RAN environments.
6G-Ready Platform and Spectral Efficiency
As mobile networks evolve toward 6G, Nokia and Orange will co-develop approaches to maximize the spectral efficiency of existing and future bands, including upper 6GHz frequencies. The platform is designed to be 6G-ready, enabling a software-defined migration to the technology and supporting smarter use of compute resources across the operator’s footprint.
Orange stated it aims to deepen its understanding of how AI-enabled RAN functions can integrate into networks while ensuring sustainable and efficient resource utilization across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. This focus on efficiency reflects broader industry efforts to reduce energy consumption in telecommunications infrastructure.
Industry Transition to AI-Native Networks
Pallavi Mahajan, chief technology and AI officer at Orange, said AI is reshaping how networks are designed. “Our latest partnership will be instrumental in enabling the industry’s transition toward cognitive, AI-native networks,” Mahajan stated.
The partnership reflects a broader shift in the telecom industry toward integrating artificial intelligence into core network functions. By combining Nokia’s RAN expertise with Orange’s operational experience and Nvidia’s AI infrastructure, the collaboration aims to accelerate the development of practical AI-RAN solutions for commercial deployment.
MWC26 Barcelona Demonstrations
At Mobile World Congress 2026 in Barcelona, Nokia showcased its AI-RAN partnership with Nvidia, demonstrating operator integrations and successful function tests of GPU-accelerated AI-RAN technology. These demonstrations provided early evidence of the technical feasibility of the approaches being developed through the Nokia Orange AI-RAN collaboration.
The partnership signals industry momentum toward AI-driven network optimization. As operators face pressure to improve efficiency and support new services, AI-RAN capabilities offer a path to achieve these goals while preparing infrastructure for the eventual transition to 6G networks.
