Nokia struck a deal with Deutsche Telekom to support the rollout of more than 3,000 open RAN-compliant sites in Northern Germany, an agreement the Finnish vendor stated marks its return as a supplier to Europe’s largest network provider.

Nokia, which will also work with Fujitsu, stated the deal covers the mass rollout of open RAN-compliant technology with commercial deployment already underway in the Neubrandenburg area of the country, a move which was first announced at the end of 2023.

Nokia’s agreement with Deutsche Telekom, announced today, confirms the operator has selected the vendor to lead its wider open RAN push, while it will also “replace the incumbent vendor in the area covered in the agreement”.

The incumbent vendor is China’s Huawei. According to the German government, mobile core networks must be free of systems supplied by either Huawei or ZTE by the end of 2026, while the 5G radio access network (RAN) infrastructure of Germany’s telcos must be free of “critical” network management functionality by the end of 2029.

Nokia explained it will supply equipment from its open RAN-compliant 5G Airscale portfolio, including massive MIMO radios and baseband solutions, while Fujitsu will supply radio solutions.

The deal will also see Nokia support Deutsche Telekom with network modernisation alongside existing suppliers.

After missing out on a bumper open RAN contract from AT&T in the US to chief rival Ericsson, the deal with Deutsche Telekom represents a much-needed win for Nokia.

Tommi Uitto, president of Mobile Networks at the vendor, bullishly claimed in a statement that while “others talk about doing open RAN, Nokia is actually doing it and doing it on a grand scale”.

“This is a significant deal for Nokia as we have been selected by the largest network operator in Europe to extend our partnership,” he added.