As economies continue to digitise, with the EU pushing to supercharge AI capabilities and Europe’s 6G vision, the need for networks to support these advancements has become more pressing. Now, comms tech provider Nokia has revealed two deals exemplifying how it is supporting such infrastructures in both the fixed and wireless domains in France and Finland in a long-distance cable trial and to improve mobile connectivity at events.
In France, Nokia has revealed that it has worked with network infrastructure provider Zayo Europe to successfully completed an 800Gbps alien wavelength trial between Paris and Marseille, spanning over 1,000km on a network designed to address the growing demand for high-speed, high-capacity networks to support advancements in AI and 6G.
Zayo Europe connects more than 600 datacentres with a network that spans more than 2.3 million kilometres of fibre, seven subsea cables and connects 17 metro markets across 11 European countries.
Putting its project into perspective, Nokia noted that as economies increasingly digitise, businesses and datacentres will require much higher speeds and capacity. It added that its collaboration with Zayo Europe in the live field trial showcases how its technology can integrate into existing infrastructures, enabling service providers to meet the evolving demands of a digital economy. Zayo noted that it was the first provider of its kind to upgrade its Pan-European network to support 400G client interfaces.
Zayo Europe’s supplier-agnostic approach is said to be designed to ensure networks can adapt to changing demands and unpredictable workloads. The live field trial used Zayo Europe’s optical line system and deployed Nokia’s PSE-6s transponders. The setup also increases data-carrying capacity compared to a standard 150GHz wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) channel, improving both efficiency and performance by allowing more data to be transmitted over a single channel.
Meanwhile in Finland, working with Finnish network deployment firm Digita, Nokia announced a long-term partnership with CoreGo a specialist in event payment and access control.
The partners said private networks have proven to be a crucial technology for large public events where real-time and uninterrupted data transfer is critical. They support the success of events by enabling efficient electronic ticket sales and verification, reliable payment transactions, smooth use of digital signage, and secure access control. Additionally, private networks enable advanced real-time data analytics, interactive fan engagement, critical staff communications, and geo-location-based services that further enhance the overall experience for guests.
The companies’ existing collaboration has enabled multiple deployments in the past two years, and is said to have benefited sports and festival organisers with reliable connectivity and significantly improved the customer experience of more than two million event attendees in Europe.
The CoreGo POS combined with Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (DAC)’s private wireless network enables event organisers to easily utilise and move the private network as needed to enable seamless management of onsite payments in venues. Deployed by Digita, the private 5G network is claimed to ensure real-time, uninterrupted data transfer for critical event systems such as inventory management, payment terminals, access control and ticket validation that meet the requirements of modern businesses and dynamic environments.
“Private 5G networks deployed with powerful edge cloud processing capabilities are transforming the event industry. Event visitors now have secure access to well-connected services from the moment they purchase their ticket to when they depart the venue,” said Michael Aspinall, head of sales for enterprise campus edge, Europe at Nokia. “We have successfully collaborated with Digita and CoreGo on multiple projects, and it is great to see that private 5G technology proves its capability in securing reliable data transmission at large events.”
