Nokia was awarded a $45 million grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund as part of an effort to further bolster its R&D capabilities in the US.

The fund is a ten-year, $1.5 billion programme designed to spur in-country innovation across wireless network technologies.

Ed Alfonso, head of mobile networks, Americas at Nokia, said the fresh funding will be used to enhance R&D capabilities in the US states of Illinois and Texas, and to support the telecoms industry’s transition to more flexible wireless networks through the adoption of open RAN.

Earlier in 2024, Nokia was among a consortium of vendors and mobile operators named to the NTIA’s Acceleration of Compatibility and Commercialisation for Open RAN Deployments (ACCoRD) project, which receives the same government funding.

The Finnish vendor is also participating in the Build America, Buy America (BABA) programme, which requires products to be manufactured in the US.

In August, Nokia laid claim to being the first vendor to have self-certified its fibre products for use in the NTIA’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) initiative , which is designed to accelerate domestic production of equipment.