Nokia Corporation NOK recently announced that it has achieved a significant milestone in India's telecom landscape with the successful completion of its first 5G non-standalone (NSA) Cloud RAN trial in collaboration with Bharti Airtel. This trial aims to enhance Airtel's network visibility, ensuring superior customer experiences through high-performance networks across its extensive network infrastructure.

Conducted in an over-the-air environment over Airtel’s commercial network, the trial achieved data throughput exceeding 1.2 Gbps using 3.5 GHz spectrum for 5G and 2100 MHz for 4G. Nokia’s RAN software for virtualized distributed unit and virtualized centralized unit operated on x86 Hardware with a CaaS layer was utilized for the trial. This successful Cloud RAN trial will enable Airtel to leverage Nokia’s cutting-edge technologies and innovative solutions into its network infrastructure and thereby upgrade its capabilities in the 5G network. The trial underscores Airtel's commitment to scalability and agility within its network infrastructure. 

Additionally, to ensure consistent functionality and performance across the entire network setup, the trial also integrated Nokia’s L1 acceleration, enhancing power efficiency and supporting Nokia’s anyRAN. The anyRAN represents Nokia's collaborative approach to building future-ready radio access networks, offering mobile operators and enterprises increased flexibility in transitioning their cloud infrastructure software, hardware and technology suppliers.

The partnership between Nokia and Airtel marks a significant milestone in the former’s journey toward further expanding its footprint in India. Nokia currently has 319 commercial 5G deals with communications service providers globally. The 5G portfolio is increasingly gaining traction among enterprise customers. Nokia’s expertise in mission-critical networks is well-established, with deployments of more than 2,600 leading enterprise customers in the transportation, energy, large enterprise, manufacturing, webscale and public sector segments worldwide. 

Shares of Nokia have lost 3.6% over the past year against the industry’s growth of 43.1%.

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Zacks Rank and Key Picks

Nokia currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader industry have been discussed below.

Ooma, Inc. OOMA offers cloud-based communications solutions, smart security and other connected services. The company’s smart software-as-a-service and unified-communications-as-a-service platforms serve as a hub for seamless communications and networking infrastructure applications. It currently sports a Zacks Rank of 1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

It delivered a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 8.90%. In the last reported quarter, Ooma delivered an earnings surprise of 27.27%.

Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. TDS, sporting a Zacks Rank of 1 at present, provides wireless products and services, cable and wireline broadband, TV and voice services to approximately 6 million customers in Chicago. 

In the last reported quarter, TDS delivered an earnings surprise of 145.45%.

Motorola Solutions, Inc. MSI provides services and solutions to government segments and public safety programs, along with large enterprises and wireless infrastructure services. Currently, Motorola holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). 

It delivered a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 7.54% and has a long-term growth expectation of 9.47%. In the last reported quarter, Motorola delivered an earnings surprise of 11.51%.