Telefonica and Nokia Sign Packet Core Deal

Telefonica signed a new packet core deal with Nokia. The announcement came one day after the research company Dell'Oro revealed the sector was struggling for traction.

The deal involves packet core equipment to enable the operator to serve its domestic enterprise sector. Nokia stated that low-latency services, including drone control, robotics, industrial services, and smart metering, are key to the arrangement.

Nokia is supplying Telefonica with its Cloud Mobile Gateway and Mediation products on a telecoms-specific cloud it stated would provide more efficient management and routing of enterprise user traffic. It noted the equipment would cover low-latency services on 4G and 5G networks. The vendor added it had 123 standalone (SA) 5G core network customers at the end of 2024.

Dell’Oro reported this week that the overall mobile core network market contracted in 4Q24. This followed three years in which research director Dave Bolan said the segment had struggled. The company stated figures in 2024 were either flat or in negative territory. It noted signaling and wireless packet core revenue was down, though policy, subscriber data management, and IMS numbers grew.

Bolan said Dell’Oro is cautiously optimistic about the overall core market’s potential for this year, due to an expectation of a year-on-year rise in SA 5G network launches and higher rates of subscriber migration. He also noted a rise in IMS core implementations and VoNR networks as a driver of potential growth in voice infrastructure.