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BARCELONA, Spain — The global telecommunications industry is undergoing a major shift, moving away from decades of hardware-focused systems toward software-driven, intelligent networks.
At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026 in Barcelona, Nokia is drawing a definitive line in the sand regarding the industry’s future. Anchored by a deepening alliance with Nvidia, Nokia unveiled a sweeping strategic vision focused entirely on artificial intelligence radio access networks (AI-RAN), laying the architectural groundwork for the impending 6G era.
Economics of the AI-RAN transition
For years, cellular networks relied on expensive, rigid deployment cycles and custom silicon for radio signal processing. But the rapid growth of generative and physical AI has changed this model, replacing steady video and data traffic with unpredictable, dynamic machine-to-machine communication.
Seeing this change, Nokia has adopted a distributed GPU system, supported by a $1 billion investment from Nvidia, to handle the significant increase in data volume. This partnership moves AI-RAN from theory to real-world use by combining regular cellular network functions with advanced AI tasks on the same high-speed computing platforms.
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At a media and analyst event on Sunday (March 1), Nokia’s president and CEO Justin Hotard highlighted the importance of this shift in his keynote speech. “AI is the new workload reshaping networks,” Hotard stated. “That shift requires architectural change across every layer—including the radio.”
“AI-RAN transforms RAN into a software-driven platform optimized for AI, and with Nvidia and a growing ecosystem of partners, we are progressing from validation to commercial deployment,” he argued. “This is a foundational step toward AI-native networks and 6G.”
Hotard put this change into perspective by comparing it to past telecom shifts, including the move to mobile voice and rich media video. He said the core network must continue to evolve to support its next primary workload.
Scrapping the silicon silos
Nokia’s bold approach highlights a major split in the global cellular infrastructure market. While Ericsson, a key European competitor, still relies on custom silicon to keep software independent and avoid being tied to one hardware vendor, Nokia is betting its future on Nvidia’s computing power. This move lets telecom operators act more like flexible cloud companies instead of traditional utilities.
At the same event, Pallavi Mahajan, Nokia’s chief technology and AI officer, stressed that this change means rethinking how networks are built, run, and make money. She said it’s important to move from scattered, specialized hardware to unified platforms that can make decisions locally.
Mahajan noted that the network must become highly predictive and autonomous to meet the stringent safety and latency requirements of physical robotics. “We are getting into a world where the networks we want to build are where humans set the intent and the system goes about and executes it safely, but within the guard rails that were set up for it,” she explained.
By using the same chips used in top AI data centers, Nokia aims to completely separate hardware from software. This will let the company innovate quickly, without waiting years for new custom hardware.
Proving the model in the field
For this AI-focused approach to work financially, it must scale in the real world and open up new ways for cash-strapped operators to make money. In Barcelona, Nokia is showing working tests of its software on Nvidia’s GPU platforms with several major telecom operators.
In the U.S., Nokia worked with T-Mobile and Nvidia to test faster workloads in a lab setting. Using a single Nvidia server and Nokia’s large MIMO radio on mid-band spectrum, they handled commercial 5G traffic, AI queries, and live video captioning simultaneously.
Furthermore, Nokia achieved Southeast Asia’s first AI RAN-powered Layer 3 5G call in partnership with Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, proving that complex network and AI workloads can coexist seamlessly in a live, commercial environment.
Also, in Japan, Nokia and SoftBank showed a promising new business model. Telecom providers can spot unused computing power in their radio networks and rent it out for outside AI tasks.
The wider telecom market is reacting quickly to this change. Companies such as BT, Elisa, NTT DOCOMO, and Vodafone Group are already using Nokia’s AI-RAN technology to improve their networks.
Revamping the physical edge
While advanced software and graphics processing units dominate the overarching strategic narrative of the IQ Era, the physical radio edge remains a critical choke point for operator profitability and energy management.
To meet the heavy computing needs of AI, Nokia is updating its AirScale lineup at MWC by launching the new Doksuri remote radio heads.
Built on Nokia’s latest ReefShark SoC technology, the Doksuri line brings advanced, localized intelligence directly to the radio unit, preparing it for the massive uplink demands of physical AI.
The primary business case for the Doksuri hardware is aggressive operational expenditure reduction, a vital concern for modern carriers. The new radios deliver up to a 30% improvement in power efficiency under typical network conditions and are 25% lighter than previous iterations, significantly shrinking the required site footprint.
“As networks transition toward AI-native architecture, performance, intelligence, and efficiency must be built into the foundation,” Mahajan argued. “Our next-generation radio portfolio brings advanced processing closer to the edge, enabling operators to meet rising AI-driven traffic demands while reducing energy consumption and total cost of ownership.”
Mahajan continued, “By embedding AI-ready capabilities directly into the radio layer, we are helping telcos build sustainable, high-performance networks ready for the next wave of 5G and the evolution toward 6G.”
6G horizon and distributed nervous system
Overall, Nokia’s announcements at the MWC 2026 show a network that goes far beyond just moving data from one place to another. Nokia is combining sensing and communications, showing how regular communication signals can work for detailed environmental analysis. This turns traditional cellular networks into sensitive radar systems capable of detecting drones and tracking movement in real time.
By leveraging shared computing, enabling automation, and deploying smart radio hardware, Nokia aims to build the autonomous networks that will shape 6G worldwide.
Mahajan summarized the company’s ultimate ambition for the coming decade: “The network for us is no longer a static part of connectivity. The network for us is a distributed nervous system for connecting intelligence.”
See also:
MWC 2026: Telecom High-Stakes Bet on the ‘IQ Era’