Nokia 5G Maturity Index reveals best practices as operators make critical 5G network and service investment decisions

Industry's first 5G Maturity Index guides operators on how to align technology investments with business objectives to succeed with 5G-enabled services

• Nokia 5G Future X portfolio additions unveiled in advance of Mobile World Congress support operator priorities to enhance customer experience, reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) and develop new 5G enabled revenue streams 

Nokia today announced the results of the Nokia 5G Maturity Index, produced in partnership with Analysys Mason, which provides operators with best practices for planning and deploying 5G services. The industry's first benchmark of 5G operator maturity revealed that two-thirds of operators expect 5G to create new revenue streams, while more than 70% of operators are focused on 5G to help improve existing consumer services. The research also found that  those operators most advanced in 5G transformation are focused on six to eight use cases.  

Key findings of the Nokia 5G Maturity Index:

• The most popular 5G use cases identified by operators include: multi-gigabit mobile connectivity, connected cars and autonomous vehicles, tactile internet experiences such as augmented and virtual reality, critical healthcare monitoring, smart city apps like lighting, and smart home services
• Most operators plan a limited commercial launch of 5G services by 2019-20 
• Operators planning early 5G commercial launches are the furthest ahead with network virtualization and cloud-based deployments.
• Operators rated as the most advanced in 5G closely align their technology and business development and link digital transformation with 5G.

"It is clear from the first Nokia 5G Maturity Index that operators have plenty of ambition for 5G. Many also understand that its impact will be far stronger if it is deployed hand-in-hand with platform transformation, in order to support a wide array of new revenue streams," said Caroline Gabriel, Principal Analyst from Analysys Mason.

"However, most acknowledge they are uncertain about the actions they must take to achieve their goals. We believe Nokia 5G Maturity Index will be a valuable support as they make these critical decisions, allowing them, for the first time, to plot their own 5G progress against an objectively assessed index, and learn from the best practice of others."

To take advantage of the promise of this next generation of network technology, Nokia continues to build out its 5G Future X portfolio and today has announced enhancements to its packet core and radio access network solutions. Nokia's end-to-end portfolio helps operators meet their immediate priorities of enhancing the customer experience and reducing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), as well as supporting their strategic objective of developing new 5G-based revenue streams.

Nokia cloud packet core (CPC) is augmenting its Cloud Mobility Manager (CMM) and Cloud Mobile Gateway (CMG) products with new 3GPP Release 15 5G Core standalone networks functions and also enhancing the previously announced non-standalone core capabilities.  With its cloud-native architecture and these augmented capabilities, the CPC solution provides operators a seamless upgrade path, combined with the deployment flexibility to support both virtual and physical high-performance network functions, to deliver services across multi-technology wireless (2/3/4/5G, unlicensed, shared) and fixed access deployments. Read more

The new Nokia AirScale all-in-cloud base station for both 4G and 5G virtualizes real-time functions in the cloud. This enables real-time processing to be hosted at the network edge, close to the radio site to meet extremely low latency demands, with capacity where it is needed. The new architecture enables operators to launch and monetize the lowest latency applications/services with ultra-low latency. With AirScale Cloud RAN's built-in flexibility operators can locate functions depending on their needs in a given area - depending on desired application needs and latency targets. Read more

The Nokia AirScale future-proof site solution provides multiple features for simpler, faster and lower-cost rollout of 5G in smart cities using a common Future X architecture for deployments of all mobile technologies and spectrum bands. Capabilities such as the world's first liquid-cooled 5G base station, including liquid-cooled 5G massive MIMO adaptive antenna, eliminate the need for expensive cooling systems, reducing site space, lowering energy consumption and cutting carbon emissions by up to 80%. Read more

Sanjay Goel, President, Global Services at Nokia said: "We essentially asked 50 operators: 'How ready is your network and business for 5G?' Their answers provide valuable insights into the best practices for operators as they design, deploy and operate 5G networks and services. We are already working with all the major operators in the lead 5G markets of North America, Korea and Japan and have the industry's only end-to-end portfolio that is available globally. The 5G Maturity Index offers important data that we can share with our customers as we continue to work with them to achieve their 5G goals."

Source: Nokia media announcement