Nokia and Ericsson have announced a landmark collaboration designed to accelerate intelligent automation across purpose-built, cloud RAN, and Open RAN networks. With this strategic move, both companies aim to strengthen industry-wide interoperability while helping Communication Service Providers (CSPs) fast-track their journey toward fully autonomous networks.
As part of the agreement, Ericsson will join Nokia’s SMO Marketplace, a platform built to empower CSPs and ecosystem partners to design, integrate, and deploy automation applications within an open, multivendor framework. At the same time, Nokia will become a member of the Ericsson rApp Ecosystem, which operates around the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform a network management and automation solution that supports open, multivendor, and multi-technology environments.
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Importantly, this dual ecosystem participation signals a shared commitment to advancing Autonomous Networks. Both companies are placing particular emphasis on innovation centered on the R1 interface, the key standard that enables rApps to interact seamlessly with the Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) layer. By focusing on this standardized interface, Nokia and Ericsson intend to simplify cross-platform automation while fostering broader industry collaboration.
Moreover, this partnership directly addresses the growing demand for AI-driven automation in mobile networks. As CSPs worldwide strive to achieve and even surpass Level 4 autonomy, they require flexible and interoperable solutions that can streamline deployment, optimization, and day-to-day network operations. Through this collaboration, Nokia and Ericsson will make their rApps accessible across both platforms, enabling smoother integration in complex, multivendor environments.
“The telecoms industry is converging on SMO as the long-term automation architecture, with major RAN and SMO contributors, and CSPs, working together to drive this transition through standards-based collaboration. Participation in each other’s rApp ecosystem reflects shared confidence from Ericsson and Nokia in the SMO architecture and a common commitment to advancing industry-wide interoperability through standardized R1 interfaces. The collaboration will expand access to, availability of, and interoperability between the growing number of rApps coming to market for CSPs,” commented Dimitris Mavrakis, Senior Research Director, ABI Research.
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Industry leaders from both organizations also highlighted the broader impact of the initiative.
“This collaboration is a key step forward for the telecoms industry,” says Anders Vestergren, Head of Solution Area Network Management at Ericsson, “giving CSPs greater choice and flexibility as they execute their Autonomous Network transformation strategies. The agreement between Nokia and Ericsson shows genuine progress in the ongoing and already-productive effort to encourage innovation using the R1 interface, and cultivate diverse, engaged and dynamic rApp ecosystems working together to embed this essential area of telecoms technology in networks worldwide.”
“This partnership with Ericsson marks a pivotal advancement in how the industry delivers the next generation of autonomous networks,” said Ari Kynaslahti, CTO at Nokia. “By aligning on open frameworks and intelligent operational models, we are giving service providers a more adaptive and future-proof foundation for automation. This collaboration also accelerates the evolution of robust rApp environments that will enable operators to introduce new capabilities faster, optimize their networks with greater precision, and scale innovation across diverse deployment scenarios worldwide.”
Ultimately, by reinforcing open standards and shared innovation, Nokia and Ericsson are positioning the telecom ecosystem for a more agile, automated, and intelligent future.
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