Orange and Nokia have partnered to jointly develop AI-RAN use cases, supported by Nvidia’s AI infrastructure.

The French telco has become the latest mobile operator to work with Nokia on AI-RAN.

According to Nokia, the two companies will work on how AI-RAN can enhance network performance, energy efficiency, and enable new services for Orange customers.

As part of this, the duo will identify, design, and evaluate new AI‑RAN capabilities. Nokia notes that the partnership sets out to explore how a GPU-based radio processor can boost performance with more advanced receivers, and how AI can be tightly integrated into the RAN to further improve performance, support new services such as sensing.

Nokia’s focus on AI RAN has intensified since Nvidia invested $1 billion into the company in October. Best known for its GPU chips, Nvidia has identified the telecoms industry as a key focus, in particular, how it can integrate AI into 5G and 6G radio networks through the Radio Access Network (RAN).

The concept of AI RAN first emerged in 2024 when the AI RAN Alliance was launched. Both Nokia and Nvidia are executive members of the alliance.

During last month’s Mobile World Congress (MWC), the vendor outlined its commitment to adopting AI RAN for future networks.

Nokia and Nvidia are already working with several telcos, including BT, Elisa, NTT Docomo, and Vodafone Group, to adopt AI-RAN technologies.

Orange has become the latest carrier to pair with Nokia on AI-RAN.

“Orange is committed to building more efficient, adaptable, and sustainable networks,” said Laurent Leboucher, group CTO, Orange.

“By collaborating with Nokia and Nvidia on AI‑RAN, we can better understand how the AI-native architecture enabled by AI-RAN can improve the efficiency of key radio algorithms — such as scheduling, beamforming, and power optimization — enhancing both spectral efficiency and energy performance, while also enabling advanced capabilities like predictive optimization and radio sensing. This collaboration is an important step in our long‑term network strategy.”

Orange’s partnership with Nokia will see the duo work on how to maximize the spectral efficiency of existing and future bands, including the upper 6 GHz band.

“AI is reshaping how networks are designed, introducing new levels of intelligence and flexibility across the radio layer,” said Pallavi Mahajan, chief technology and AI officer, Nokia.

“Through this collaboration with Orange, we are exploring how Nokia’s AI RAN solution brings advanced AI and RAN functions together in a unified architecture. This will be instrumental in enabling the industry’s transition toward cognitive, AI‑native networks.”

While Nokia has worked with several telcos on AI RAN in lab environments so far, including T-Mobile in the US, the vendor said last month that it expects to launch its first commercial AI RAN products next year.