Kiwi telecoms provider 2degrees has inked a six-year Voice Core deal with Nokia, which will see the operator tap Nokia’s containerised Cloud Native Communication Suite (CNCS) to deploy new 5G services and optimise network resources.
According to Nokia, CNCS makes it easier for operators like 2degrees to deploy multiple vendors’ applications on the same cloud infrastructure, streamline network activities, enhance automation, and minimise manual intervention.
"2degrees will utilise CNCS to bring together multiple IMS voice 3GPP functionalities into a single cloud-native network function," says Nokia.
"It will be deployed on the Nokia Cloud Platform, which integrates a full set of Red Hat cloud products, including Red Hat OpenShift."
Stephen Kurzeja, CTIO at 2degrees said the CNCS provides the operator with a much-simplified core architecture that enables new monetisation and innovation pathways to enhance the subscriber experience and further optimise how 2degrees manages its network with new automation tools.
“We are happy to expand our relationship with Nokia as we continue to modernise our network,” said Kurzeja.
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Nokia says integrating with Red Hat OpenShift gives operators the option to scale their 5G network footprint and quickly introduce new services with enhanced capacity, performance, life cycle management, automation, and energy management.
CNCS improves energy efficiency by about 10% to 20%, relative to a standard IMS Voice Core, according to Nokia data.
“We are pleased to extend our collaboration with 2degrees with Nokia’s flexible and reliable cloud-native CNCS architecture,” said Wilson Maria, Head of Cloud and Network Services, Oceania at Nokia.
"This will enable the roll-out of new innovative services more quickly, securely, and without limitations in multi-cloud environments to meet the evolving and more demanding connectivity needs of 2degrees’ customers."
As part of the agreement, 2degrees will also integrate Nokia’s MantaRay Network Management solution for a consolidated network view.
"2degrees already leverages a variety of other Nokia 5G Core networking functions like Shared Data Layer, where data is stored, through NCP, which reflects Nokia’s multi-cloud strategy of providing operators with the infrastructure of their choice," says Nokia.