The agreement, which comes after the two firms celebrated 30 years of partnership in New Zealand, will focus on accelerating opportunities for Vodafone’s 4G and 5G networks.
The companies will also look to explore the capabilities of 5G-advanced and 6G networks in the future.
“Nokia has a proud 30-year history of bringing the world’s best mobile technology to New Zealand with Vodafone, most recently helping Vodafone deliver a world class 5G network. This collaboration will pave the way forward to 5G-Advanced and ultimately 6G,” says Tommi Uitto, president of mobile networks at Nokia.
“New Zealand has a thriving and dynamic telecommunications environment, which provides a perfect backdrop to pioneer innovation - innovation that will enable incredible advances in connectivity, services and the associated digital transformation.”
Through joint resource investment in technology validation, demos and field trials, the companies will seek to further ignite innovation in advanced networks, developing commercial opportunities and future use cases in areas from network slicing and private networks to industrial automation, AI and machine learning.
Nokia says the collaboration will keep New Zealand at the forefront of global advances in network technology and it will play a key role in shaping how the next generation of technologies will be used to enhance people’s lives.
“At Vodafone, we’re helping customers unlock the magic of technology, and to do that, they need fast, reliable connectivity,” said Tony Baird, Vodafone New Zealand’s wholesale and infrastructure director.
“We have invested extensively in our 4G and 5G networks with Nokia and the innovation collaboration announced today is an awesome next step.”
