Nokia has signed a $1.17 billion deal to provide China Mobile with a range of telecommunications gear and operational support.
In the one-year deal, Nokia will continue to provide China Mobile with mobile, fixed, IP routing, optical routing and customer experience management technologies. While Nokia and China Mobile have a long-standing relationship, the new agreement was signed at the recent Sino-German Economic Forum.
Last week, Nokia announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China Mobile to create a new lab in Hangzhou, China, to research radio resource management and traffic prediction using AI and machine learning in a 5G radio access network.
Today's announcement mentioned the MoU for AI and machine learning research and also said the two companies would work to together to identify new products and services for vertical markets.
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China Mobile is gearing up for the launch of its 5G services next year by conducting trials across major cities in China this year. China Mobile has also worked with Huawei Technologies and Intel on its 5G-compatible systems. China Mobile is the world's largest mobile operator with more than 902 million subscribers.