- Nokia recently announced it’s scaling back on its broader private network ambitions
- In the U.S., Nokia was an early pioneer in establishing the CBRS ecosystem that supports a variety of private network deployments
- Nokia told Fierce that CBRS remains central to Nokia’s U.S. private wireless strategy
Nokia’s decision to recalibrate its private networks business got us wondering about the company’s go-to strategy around Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS).
The Finnish vendor was an early pioneer in CBRS, dubbed the “innovation band” with a three-tiered spectrum sharing framework unique to the U.S. At 3.5 GHz, CBRS is the spectrum that Nokia heavily leverages to provide private enterprise networks to customers in the U.S.
In fact, Nokia has more than 90 CBRS-enabled private network deployments in the U.S., according to SNS Telecom & IT. Nokia also supplies CBRS radios to other entities, like Charter Communications, for mobile traffic offload.
Why are we bringing this up now? For one thing, we’re just plain curious as to what Nokia’s stance is when it comes to CBRS since its decision to back away from the broader private network market to focus on more profitable mission-critical contracts. That triggered all kinds of speculation about Nokia’s intentions in the private networking space.
For another, CBRS is at a sort of turning point. The FCC launched a Notice of Proposed Inquiry (NPRM) in 2024 to examine ways to update CBRS policies, including controversial ones like power levels. Near as we can tell, Nokia hasn’t submitted a public filing in that proceeding for about a year.
Nokia’s stance on CBRS
Fierce reached out to Nokia for some answers. Here’s what we heard when we asked if its support for CBRS has changed since CEO Justin Hotard took over in April. (Spoiler alert: It sounds very similar to its statement about committing to the private 5G market, which makes sense, since they’re so closely intertwined with one another.)
“There has been no change in Nokia’s support for CBRS. Nokia has been a long-time contributor to the CBRS community and continues to be fully committed to supporting our existing CBRS customers, enabling new customers to use CBRS, and driving collaboration, innovation, and technology development across the CBRS ecosystem,” Nokia said in a statement.
Asked to characterize Nokia’s interest in and use of CBRS for private networks in the U.S., this is how Nokia put it:
“CBRS is an important element of Nokia’s private wireless strategy in the U.S. Our CBRS-based private LTE and private 5G solutions are deployed widely, and we continue to invest in their evolution in line with customer requirements and industry progress. Nokia remains committed to enabling enterprise digitalization and private wireless innovation across licensed, shared and unlicensed spectrum, CBRS included, and we believe ecosystem collaboration is essential for continued success. That commitment has not changed.”
Zooming out
Despite that publicly stated commitment, Nokia's move could weaken the momentum behind CBRS in the U.S., depending on what eventually happens to its Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) assets under its Enterprise Campus Edge (ECE) unit, according to Roy Chua, principal analyst and founder of AvidThink.
Nokia had tried to balance its go-to-market private wireless strategy between going direct to customers by themselves (or with other non-service provider partners) and through communications service providers (CSPs).
“CSPs are mixed on their support for CBRS today, with T-Mobile most recently indicating a preference for enterprise solutions that leverage their licensed spectrum versus shared spectrum CBRS,” Chua said.
In sum, Nokia’s commitment to CBRS is good news for the CBRS community, but given that its overall private network strategy is narrowing, we’ll be watching to see where this all lands.