Press Releases

Sep 11, 2026

DOCOMO Launches World's First Commercial Deployment of Nokia's Latest Base Station Equipment in a Multi-Vendor Configuration

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TOKYO, JAPAN, September 11, 2026 --- NTT DOCOMO, INC. (“DOCOMO”) in collaboration with Nokia, announced that commercial operation on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, deployment of Nokia's latest base station equipment (the “equipment”), which complies with O-RAN ALLIANCE*1 specifications and can connect to radio units from different vendors. The equipment incorporates Levante for data processing and Ponente for control processing.*2 With this achievement, DOCOMO becomes the world's first commercial operator which deploys the equipment in a configuration connected to Levante/Ponente and radio units from multiple vendors (a “multi-vendor configuration”).*3

DOCOMO has utilized base station equipment compliant with O-RAN ALLIANCE specifications to flexibly deploy optimal networks by combining radio units according to the characteristics and traffic demand of each service area. To further advance its network and provide more reliable communications quality, DOCOMO needed to introduce latest-generation base station equipment capable of modernizing both its LTE and 5G infrastructure.

The equipment supports both LTE and 5G and is expected to accommodate more radio units while consuming less power than existing Nokia base station equipment. By improving network operating efficiency and reducing costs, the equipment will contribute to the development of a sustainable network. It can also connect to O-RAN ALLIANCE-compliant radio units supplied by multiple vendors, enabling DOCOMO to deploy networks more flexibly and rapidly according to installation conditions and traffic demand. For example, high-power radio units can be introduced to cover wide areas, and compact radio units can be introduced to urban locations with limited installation space and to venues such as event sites where traffic demand is concentrated, depending on the objectives of the area design.

Connection of Radio Units from Multiple Vendors
<Connection of Radio Units from Multiple Vendors>

At the 59th Joso Kinugawa Fireworks Festival, scheduled for Saturday, September 12, 2026, DOCOMO plans to install the equipment in a mobile base station vehicle and combine it with Dual Boost, Nokia's latest radio network optimization technology for Massive MIMO, to improve communications quality even in the congestion situation.
Going forward, DOCOMO will deploy the equipment nationwide, focusing initially on urban areas, stadiums, event venues and other locations where traffic demand is concentrated, with the aim of improving communications quality in environments where many customers use the network simultaneously.

In addition, Nokia's AirScale platform, which includes the equipment, is designed with evolution toward 5G-Advanced and AI-native 6G networks. DOCOMO and Nokia agreed, through a memorandum of understanding signed on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, to advance studies of network architectures for the AI era and to establish milestones toward the development of Virtualized RAN/Cloud-RAN*4 deployed on virtualized infrastructure, various initiatives supporting the evolution of DOCOMO's AI-Centric Network*5, the introduction of automation solutions such as SON*6 and RIC*7 that operate across base station equipment from multiple vendors, and the realization of Autonomous Networks.*8

DOCOMO and Nokia will continue to promote technological innovation using Open RAN and the automation of network operations, while co-creating advanced networks for the 6G and AI era.

  1. O-RAN ALLIANCE is a world-wide community of telecom operators and vendors committed to re-shaping Radio Access Networks to be more scalable, open and intelligent in order for them to be able to support 5G and all future network standards.
  2. Levante and Ponente are product names for baseband cards developed by Nokia for base stations. Levante is a baseband card responsible for data processing, while Ponente is a baseband card responsible for control processing.
  3. According to research by NTT DOCOMO as of September 9, 2026.
  4. Virtualized RAN/Cloud-RAN refers to a virtualized radio base station network deployed on virtualized infrastructure.
  5. AI-Centric Network is a next-generation network platform that places AI at its core to enable real-time data utilization and advanced automation.
  6. SON stands for Self-Organizing Network, a mechanism that automatically configures, optimizes and recovers the network, enabling tasks previously performed manually to be carried out automatically.
  7. RIC stands for RAN Intelligent Controller, a function that uses AI and applications to intelligently control and optimize the Radio Access Network (RAN).
  8. Autonomous Network refers to a decentralized, autonomous network in which the network itself assesses conditions and continuously operates optimally with minimal human intervention.
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