Nokia revealed another operator win in India and the completion of a trial in Singapore of its cloud-based RAN platform, claiming a first in Southeast Asia.

Bharti Airtel deployed Nokia’s converged package core and fixed wireless access offering to integrate 5G and 4G services into a single set of servers. The core network architecture will enable the operator to optimise its hardware footprint and reduce the cost per bit by using appliance-based packet core gateways, Nokia noted in a statement.

Airtel CTO Randeep Sekhon noted the deployment enables “critical changes to our network quality and reliability” to meet the rising growth in customer data requirements.

The rollout covers network automation in a multi-year deal across the majority of the operator’s service regions in India.

In Singapore, StarHub teamed with Nokia to trial the vendor’s 5G cloud-based RAN platform, which will enable the operator to deliver new services to enterprises and host a range of AI technologies.

Separately, the vendor declared cloud RAN sets the foundation for AI-RAN infrastructure, supporting AI workload management and allowing operators to scale network resources more efficiently.

StarHub CTO Ayush Sharma said the partnership will improve network performance, efficiency and resilience, while future-proofing it for emerging technologies.

Earlier in the week, Vodafone Idea selected Nokia to expand its optical transport network in India, while in New Zealand 2degrees reached a six-year deal to use the vendor’s cloud-native communication suite.