Nokia and Xiaomi have signed a business collaboration agreement and a multi-year patent agreement, including a cross license to each company's cellular standard essential patents.
Under the business cooperation agreement, Nokia will provide network infrastructure equipment designed to deliver the high capacity, low power requirements expected by large web providers and datacenter operators. Xiaomi also acquired patent assets from Nokia as part of the transaction.
Rajeev Suri, President & CEO of Nokia, said: "In addition to welcoming such a prominent global technology company to our family of patent licensees, we look forward to working together on a wide range of strategic projects."
Nokia and Xiaomi will work together on optical transport solutions for data centre interconnect, IP Routing based on Nokia's newly announced FP4 network processor, and a data centre fabric solution. In addition, the companies have agreed to explore opportunities for further cooperation, in areas such as Internet of Things, augmented and virtual reality, and artificial intelligence.
With presence in over 30 countries and regions, Xiaomi is known for its affordable yet high-spec smartphones. As well as handsets, Xiaomi is also involved in Internet of Things development. The Mi Ecosystem IoT platform has crossed 60 million connected devices, and there are now over 8 million daily active connected devices on the Mi Ecosystem platform.
Lei Jun, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi, said: "Our collaboration with Nokia will enable us to tap on its leadership in building large, high performance networks and formidable strength in software and services, as we seek to create products and services that deliver the best user experience to our Mi fans worldwide."
