In Barcelona’s annual parade of buzzwords, Nokia (NOK) and Amazon Web Services (AMZN) (AWS) have managed to turn “network slicing” and “agentic AI” into headliners rather than footnotes. The duo is unveiling what they describe as an industry‑first: an intent‑based, agentic AI‑powered 5G‑Advanced slicing solution running on AWS, with live pilots at du in the UAE and Orange in Europe. du and Orange are already trialing the technology on their production 5G networks, giving this announcement more the feel of a soft launch than a science‑fair demo.
Under the hood, Nokia brings its 5G AirScale base stations, MantaRay SMO, Edge Slicing, and network slicing stack, while AWS supplies the cloud, AI platform, and connective tissue via Amazon Bedrock and familiar services such as Amazon EKS and CloudWatch. The pitch to carriers is disarmingly simple: get cloud‑like agility, carrier‑grade performance, and AI‑driven automation without signing up your engineering team for a multi‑year integration odyssey.
From Static Slices to “Intent‑Based” Networks
Network slicing has been telecom’s version of New Year’s resolutions—full of promise, short on execution. Operators could carve bespoke virtual networks for enterprises, gamers, or first responders, but static policies and manual configuration meant the slices rarely kept up with real-world volatility. Nokia and AWS are trying to change that by adding intent and autonomy to the equation.
The new solution uses agentic AI modules—operating in chatbot, on‑demand, scheduled, and fully autonomous modes—to watch live network KPIs such as bitrate and latency, infer what is happening in the outside world from open internet data, and then tune RAN policies on the fly. These AI agents ingest signals ranging from traffic incidents, events, timetables, and maps to weather and location data, and then align network behavior with high-level intents like “keep emergency services at full performance” or “prioritize XR gaming during a launch event.” For operators, the promise is fewer spreadsheets, fewer midnight calls, and more policy expressed in plain language rather than arcane router configurations.
du, Orange, and the Live‑Network Proving Ground
Nokia and AWS have wisely chosen to test this AI‑driven slicing not in a lab but in the wild—on live 5G networks at du and Orange. That gives the initiative a commercial edge: if the technology behaves well amid real subscribers, traffic spikes, and occasional football‑induced surges, it strengthens the case for broader rollout.
The early use cases read like a telco wish list. For enterprises, intent‑based slicing can maintain SLAs across campuses, ports, factories, and smart city zones by dynamically adjusting RAN behavior to keep latency and throughput within target bands. For public safety and first responders, on‑demand slices can be triggered by external data—like an accident or severe weather—to temporarily boost performance at specific base stations without degrading premium consumer services. For consumers, the same machinery can quietly prioritize 5G+ and fixed wireless access customers during gaming, streaming, and immersive XR peaks, ideally without anyone noticing—except in the form of fewer frozen frames.
Cloud RAN, SmartNICs, and the Economics of Scale
While the agentic AI slicing announcement grabs the headlines, it rests on several years of groundwork between Nokia and AWS around Cloud RAN and cloud‑native telco architectures. Earlier collaborations focused on running Nokia’s containerized RAN network functions on AWS infrastructure, harnessing Amazon EKS, AWS Telco Network Builder, Amazon EC2, and observability tools like Amazon CloudWatch, with the goal of simplifying deployment and lifecycle management for disaggregated RAN stacks.
A key ingredient is Nokia’s Cloud RAN SmartNIC, designed to process the full RAN Layer 1 workload in hardware, paired with AWS EC2 instances powered by Graviton3 processors for Layer 2. This in‑line acceleration approach reduces the number of CPU cores needed, lowers total cost of ownership, and still delivers carrier‑grade throughput, bandwidth, and massive MIMO support. For carriers, the story is less about exotic silicon and more about economics: pre‑validated stacks that cut months of integration effort and enable a software‑centric, CI/CD‑driven radio network.
Why This Matters for Investors and the Industry
For telecom operators, this collaboration aims to turn long‑theorized 5G revenue streams into billable reality, with premium, context‑aware slices sold to enterprises, public sector agencies, and data‑hungry consumers. Automated, AI‑driven network optimization promises not just new services but leaner operations, fewer manual interventions, and potentially better network reliability.
For Nokia, the move reinforces its positioning as a 5G‑Advanced and AI‑native network supplier willing to embrace public cloud rather than compete with it. For AWS, the partnership strengthens its telecom franchise, extending from OSS/BSS and IT workloads deeper into RAN and core, while showcasing Amazon Bedrock as an industrial‑grade platform for agentic AI. And for investors watching MWC for real‑world validation rather than slide‑ware, live trials with du and Orange, together with Nokia’s earlier SaaS‑based 5G core deployment at Citymesh on AWS, suggest that cloud‑native telco is edging closer to the mainstream.
The sophisticated punchline? In a world where every company claims to be “AI‑powered,” Nokia and AWS are quietly teaching 5G networks to read the room—and then reconfigure themselves before anyone has to file a trouble ticket.
The Sources
- Nokia press release – “Nokia and AWS showcase industry-first agentic AI-powered network slicing with du and Orange”
https://www.nokia.com/newsroom/nokia-and-aws-showcase-industry-first-agentic-ai-powered-network-slicing-with-du-and-orange/[nokia] - TelecomTV – “Nokia and AWS trial agentic AI network slicing with Orange and du”
https://www.telecomtv.com/content/5g/nokia-and-aws-trial-agentic-ai-network-slicing-with-orange-and-du-54918/[telecomtv] - Telecompaper – “Du and Orange first to pilot network slicing with agentic AI from Nokia and AWS”
https://www.telecompaper.com/news/du-and-orange-first-to-pilot-network-slicing-with-agentic-ai-from-nokia-and-aws–1563226[telecompaper] - AWS Industries Blog – “AWS and Nokia Collaborate to Drive Operational Simplicity with Carrier-Grade Performance for Cloud RAN”
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/industries/aws-and-nokia-collaborate-to-drive-operational-simplicity-with-carrier-grade-performance-for-cloud-ran/[aws.amazon] - Nokia press release – “Citymesh goes live with world’s first commercial mobile service on 5G Core SaaS powered by Nokia and AWS”
https://www.nokia.com/newsroom/citymesh-goes-live-with-worlds-first-commercial-mobile-service-on-5g-core-saas-powered-by-nokia-and-aws/[nokia] - MarketScreener – “Citymesh Goes Live with First Commercial Mobile Service on 5G Core SaaS Powered by Nokia and AWS”
https://www.marketscreener.com/news/citymesh-goes-live-with-first-commercial-mobile-service-on-5g-core-saas-powered-by-nokia-and-aws–45990989/[marketscreener]
