Nokia’s December 2024 announcements described two different 5G milestones in Europe: a completed commercial Cloud RAN deployment with Elisa in Finland, and a four-year agreement with Italy’s EOLO to deploy a standalone mmWave RAN. Nokia and its partners called the latter Europe’s first of its kind; that “first” is a company claim, not an independently verified finding.
What Nokia announced in Finland and Italy
| Project | Partner and country | What was announced | Primary purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud RAN | Elisa, Finland | Completion of a commercial deployment that handled end-to-end 5G voice and data calls | Cloud-native network flexibility and automation |
| Standalone mmWave RAN | EOLO, Italy | A four-year agreement to deploy a 5G standalone mmWave RAN | Fixed wireless access for rural and underserved areas |
Computer Weekly reported both developments on 16 December 2024. They are related through Nokia’s 5G portfolio, but they are not one shared network or the same technical achievement: Elisa’s project centers on virtualizing radio access network functions, while EOLO’s is aimed at delivering high-capacity fixed wireless access over mmWave radio.
What the Elisa Cloud RAN deployment included
The commercial deployment completed end-to-end 5G voice and data calls using Nokia Cloud RAN, AirScale Massive MIMO radios, baseband software and the AI-powered MantaRay network-management solution. Dell XR8620 servers and Red Hat OpenShift supported the cloud-native RAN functions. The announcement therefore described an operational deployment completing calls, not simply a lab demonstration.
How it relates to the 2023 trial
In an earlier announcement dated 13 October 2023, Nokia and Elisa described a Cloud RAN trial they called Europe’s first powered by in-line acceleration. That trial used commercial 5G standalone RAN and core, 100 MHz n78 cells at 3.5 GHz, and over-the-air data calls, with Red Hat OpenShift and x86 servers. The 2023 trial and the later commercial deployment are separate milestones; the trial should not be mistaken for the commercial deployment reported in 2024.
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What Cloud RAN means
A radio access network (RAN) connects mobile devices to an operator’s wider network through radio equipment and the software that manages radio connections. In Cloud RAN, some RAN functions run as software on cloud-based, general-purpose computing infrastructure rather than only on dedicated, purpose-built baseband hardware. Nokia’s Elisa deployment combined Dell servers and OpenShift with Nokia RAN software and AirScale radios.
This approach can let an operator scale computing resources, automate operations and place processing closer to users for edge-oriented services. Nokia and Elisa also describe Cloud RAN as something that can coexist with purpose-built RAN in hybrid deployments; it does not require an operator to replace every conventional RAN site at once. The 2023 trial’s in-line acceleration refers to accelerating network workloads in the server platform, rather than a change to the radio spectrum or the meaning of 5G standalone.
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What EOLO’s standalone mmWave project is for
EOLO’s agreement targets Italian rural and underserved communities where building wired fiber can be costly or impractical. The equipment named in Nokia’s 16 December 2024 release includes AirScale basebands and radios, Shikra mmWave radios, and a FastMile 5G mmWave outdoor receiver. This is operator infrastructure for a fixed wireless access (FWA) service, not a standard consumer router purchase.
EOLO CEO Guido Garrone said the partnership would enable FWA connectivity “up to 1 Gbps to the whole Italian market.” That is the company’s stated ambition, not a guaranteed speed for every household or a published result from a completed nationwide rollout. In the same release, EOLO reported that its network covered more than 7,000 municipalities and cited 4,100 BTS, 1.6 million people and 116,000 businesses; those are EOLO’s figures as of its 16 December 2024 announcement.
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Is this really Europe’s first standalone mmWave network?
The careful answer is that Nokia and EOLO described their agreement as a deployment of Europe’s first 5G standalone mmWave RAN. Nokia’s release and Computer Weekly’s report attribute the first claim to the companies; the available announcements do not establish that an independent body audited it. It is therefore more accurate to report the claim with attribution than to state it as an independently settled fact.
The wording also matters: the 2024 announcement was a four-year deal to deploy the network, not proof that a completed service was already available across Italy on that date. Separately, the 2023 Elisa claim concerned Europe’s first Cloud RAN trial powered by in-line acceleration. It was a different “first,” tied to a trial rather than EOLO’s mmWave deployment agreement.
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How the two projects differ
| Aspect | Elisa Cloud RAN | EOLO standalone mmWave |
|---|---|---|
| Country and partner | Finland; Elisa | Italy; EOLO |
| Technical focus | Cloud-hosted RAN functions with in-line acceleration in the earlier trial | Standalone mmWave radio access network |
| Evidence described in the announcements | Commercial deployment completed end-to-end 5G voice and data calls | Four-year deployment agreement |
| Intended benefit | Scalability, automation and support for hybrid cloud and purpose-built RAN | High-capacity FWA for rural and underserved locations |
What these announcements do—and do not—show
- Elisa’s commercial deployment shows Nokia Cloud RAN completing 5G voice and data calls on the described platform; it does not establish that all of Elisa’s network moved to Cloud RAN.
- EOLO’s deal indicates an infrastructure plan aimed at improving rural broadband options; it does not establish current coverage, household availability, or a guaranteed 1 Gbps speed at every location.
- The “first” descriptions are attributed claims from Nokia and its partners, rather than independently audited rankings.
- Both projects use carrier-grade equipment and involve operator networks. They are not instructions for a home user to reproduce the deployment with retail 5G equipment.
Sources
- Computer Weekly’s report on Nokia’s Elisa and EOLO announcements, 16 December 2024.
- Nokia’s release on the EOLO agreement, 16 December 2024.
- Nokia’s release on the Elisa Cloud RAN trial, 13 October 2023.
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