China Unicom picks Nokia for small cells

China Unicom has selected Nokia to supply its Flexi Zone small cells and an AirScale low power radio head for deployment in 31 provinces in China. Nokia will leverage its global services expertise to optimize small cell deployments for China Unicom, including network planning and optimization, equipment commissioning and care in warranty services. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Nokia provides the ability to upgrade the small cell portfolio via software to deliver narrow-band IoT (NB-IoT), enabling support for sensors for the delivery of many smart city services, including smart transport and metering systems as well as the introduction of smart healthcare.

China Unicom has gained or migrated approximately 55 million subscribers to 4G this year for a total of 160 million.