MTN South Africa partnered with Nokia to modernize its network, and enhance connectivity and voice services, a move the operator argued puts it on a strong path to 5G evolution.
According to a press release, MTN South Africa will be leveraging Nokia’s 5G infrastructure and IMS for its Voice over Broadband, Voice over WiFi, and Voice over LTE (VoLTE), a digital service over its LTE wireless high-speed data network.
Nokia IMS and VoLTE lay the foundation for Voice over 5G, a fundamental requirement for the introduction of 5G for mobile phones, it said.
Through this strategic and longstanding partnership between the two companies, MTN is also able to expand this modernization to its networks in other African countries.
Giovanni Chiarelli, Chief Technology and Information Officer at MTN South Africa said: “With Nokia cloud-native IMS, MTN has a strong path to 5G. This deployment allows us to provide customers the highest quality and fastest connectivity, including superior voice connectivity through VoLTE. Nokia is our longstanding partner and has been integral for us to bring the industry’s best services and products to our users and enhance customer experience.”
Raghav Sahgal, President of Cloud and Network Services, Nokia, said: “We are proud to be delivering MTN South Africa its 5G infrastructure. Communications service providers need to successfully transform themselves into Digital Service Providers that are capable of offering customers fundamentally new user experiences. By adopting a cloud-based network foundation through Nokia, MTN enhances the customer network experience, as well as ensures much-needed flexibility and lower network management costs.”
