- T-Mobile US, Nvidia, Ericsson and Nokia are jointly investing in an AI-RAN Innovation Centre
- The facility will be based at T-Mobile US’s headquarters campus in Bellevue, Washington
- The partners will develop mobile network systems based on AI functionality, “revolutionising the capabilities of radio access networks”
- The end results “will make the promises of Open RAN more viable, while also going beyond”, they claim
- The move signals a shift in mobile network innovation, with traditional RAN vendors along for the ride but not driving the initiative
Graphics processing unit (GPU) giant Nvidia has continued its artificial intelligence (AI) incursion into the radio access network (RAN) sector by teaming up with T-Mobile US and the telco’s long-standing mobile network system suppliers Ericsson and Nokia to enter into a new “technology partnership” and invest in an AI-RAN Innovation Centre located at T-Mobile’s headquarters campus in Bellevue, Washington.
According to the partners, the move, announced during T-Mobile US’s capital markets day, is a bid to bring RAN and AI innovation “closer together”, “revolutionise” RAN capabilities and “serve customers in unprecedented ways”.
It’s not the first time that the four companies have crossed AI-paths in the RAN. Back in February, on the first day of Mobile World Congress 2024, they were unveiled as among the founding members of the AI-RAN Alliance. Nvidia was widely seen then as instigating the new industry grouping, and it’s hard not to believe – given its AI GPU muscle and know-how – that it’s not playing a similar leadership role at the brand new AI-RAN Innovation Centre (despite T-Mobile being given announcement honours).
