Nokia loses another US carrier, AT&T
Three years after Nokia lost Verizon, likely due to the slow delivery of Intel’s 10 nm chipset for the first 5G network implementation, Nokia has announced the loss of its second US operator. Recently, AT&T revealed its plan to phase out Nokia’s RAN, making this major operator more reliant on Ericsson. This news isn’t favorable for Nokia, as it is expected to cost the company nearly $1 billion in 2025, precisely 4% of Nokia’s total revenues last year. This development led to a 6.5% drop in the price of Nokia’s shares on Monday, while Ericsson’s shares rose.
Nokia stated that it will remain a key partner for AT&T within both its Network Infrastructure and Cloud and Network Services businesses. Additionally, AT&T will continue to purchase products such as microwave radio links and femto solutions from Mobile Networks.
There is speculation that AT&T may have encountered issues with the fan units in Nokia’s latest massive MIMO (advanced 5G) radios. However, Nokia is deploying the same 5G radios in India, which experiences higher temperatures than the US, so that cannot be the reason. Another possible factor is that Nokia was slow in replacing Intel-based products. Nevertheless, if AT&T plans to spend $14 billion to build a virtual and open RAN for 70% of its traffic, Intel will likely be prevalent.
Despite losing AT&T, Nokia faces challenges. The company has announced new openRAN deals, such as with NTT Docomo in Japan. While Nokia is taking action to reduce its cost base, it is committed to protecting its research and development output to deliver market-leading products to customers.
