Nokia and Tencent sign agreement to accelerate 5G webscale research and applications to benefit billions of Internet users in China

• Nokia and Tencent, one of the world's biggest online service providers to develop new 5G applications while exploring 5G's potential in transportation, finance, energy, intelligent manufacturing and entertainment
• Joint lab to be established in Shenzhen for development and end-to-end testing
• Strategic framework agreement signed at Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2018

During Mobile World Congress Shanghai, Nokia and Tencent, one of China's leading providers of Internet services, have signed an agreement to carry out joint research and development work to explore the potential of 5G for the provision of new applications, including those for a variety of vertical markets.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the companies at Mobile World Congress Shanghai, Nokia and Tencent will establish an end-to-end 5G test environment in Shenzhen. With 1.04 billion combined monthly active user accounts of its WeChat and QQ social media applications*, Tencent aims to leverage the massive connectivity, increased speeds, capacity and reliability and lower latency enabled by 5G to enhance these services.

Going forward, Nokia and Tencent will leverage the artificial intelligence and automation management capabilities enabled by 5G to promote international standards and an open-source ecosystem to expand the development of new services. The companies will conduct 5G applications research using technologies such as Edge Computing to benefit a number of vertical markets, including transportation, finance, energy, intelligent manufacturing and entertainment. This will potentially open up the widespread introduction of applications such as Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) and enhance the delivery of services such as cloud-based gaming and entertainment.

Key elements of the agreement:

• Establishes a joint laboratory  equipped with leading 5G technologies, products and solutions, including  centralized and decentralized split architecture using Nokia Airscale Radio Access Network, 5G Core, MEC framework and third party devices.
• Leverages the capabilities of an end-to-end 5G testing environment. Nokia and Tencent will conduct verification on service key performance indicators and develop new 5G and IoT use cases.

Zeng Yu, Vice President at Tencent, said: "We are pleased to collaborate with Nokia to leverage the technologies, products and expertise of both our companies to fufill the growing demands of a digital economy driven by 5G. Tencent and Nokia are fully committed to delivering richer, more diverse, multi-level services and applications for enterprises, and individual customers. Furthermore, we will support each other in creating more financial and social benefits in our respective fields, to pursue success in the new era of digital economy."

Marc Rouanne, president of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: "This collaboration with Tencent is an important step in showing webscale companies around the globe how they can leverage the end-to-end capabilities of Nokia's 5G Future X portfolio.  Working with them we can deliver a network that will allow them to extend their service offer to deliver myriad applications and services with the high-reliability and availability to support ever-growing and changing customer demands."

*According to Tencent's Q1 2018 results

Source: Nokia media announcement