Nokia wins five-year national 5G contract with Ice Norway

Press release

Nokia wins five-year national 5G contract with Ice Norway

• Agreement to upgrade and expand footprint of 5G networks across Norway
• Nokia’s energy-efficient AirScale portfolio to support Ice’s sustainability commitments
• This partnership brings world-class mobility and new services to Lyse Group

July 5, 2022

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today announced that it has won a five-year contract with Norwegian mobile operator Ice to upgrade and expand its nationwide 5G radio network infrastructure. This decision will support the Lyse holding group’s strategy of offering best-in-class fixed and mobile services to its customers. The deployment is already underway and will continue until 2026.

Under the contract, Nokia will provide equipment from its comprehensive, energy-efficient AirScale portfolio, including Single RAN and AirScale base stations and high-capacity 5G Massive MIMO antennas to support different spectrum bands. Approximately 3,200 base stations will be upgraded and an additional 3,900 new base stations will be deployed. These solutions will increase Ice’s 5G coverage and performance and cover all deployment scenarios, from dense urban capacity to wide area coverage. In particular, Nokia’s solutions will allow Ice to leverage its broad-spectrum holdings. Nokia will also provide its NetAct solution for network management and transparent day-to-day network operations as well as optimization and technical support services.

Ice is owned by multi-service company, Lyse, which also owns fiber broadband provider, Altibox. Together, the companies manage the national digital infrastructure as well as mobile frequencies for 4G and 5G. Under this new agreement, Ice and Altibox will be able to add new services to their competitive fixed and mobile offer, such as 5G fixed wireless access.

Ice has over 700,000 customers and its high-quality 4G and 5G network covers 95% of the Norwegian population. Ice is committed to sustainable and responsible growth and continuous reduction of energy consumption through advanced technology and production process improvement and optimization. Nokia has a long-standing partnership with Ice and also provides its core network.

Eivind Helgaker, CEO of Ice, commented: “This agreement underscores our continued commitment to investing in our network and providing our subscribers with the best possible connectivity experiences. Nokia has been our technology partner since the very beginning and through active competition they have again convinced us that they are still the right choice. Their technology gives us the flexibility to use our spectrum assets to their full capacity and allows us to be even more competitive in the Norwegian telecommunications market.

Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: “This is a particularly exciting phase for Ice, as 5G accelerates in Norway and establishes a competitive position in the market. We are proud to continue our journey as a long-term partner. We have already made great strides in rolling out 5G services across the country and this new agreement will extend coverage to new areas while improving coverage and performance of the existing footprint. Our industry has an important role to play in greening societies, and our energy-efficient AirScale portfolio supports Ice’s sustainability commitments.

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