Nokia said T-Mobile completed a call using NVIDIA-powered radio computing on a live U.S. network, while Elisa reported a Finnish trial combining mobile traffic and video analysis, as operators test new network uses.
At a commercial cell site in Bellevue, Washington, T-Mobile used Nokia radio equipment and software with NVIDIA’s Aerial RAN Computer platform. Nokia announced the call Oct. 21. Elisa said its Helsinki trial carried voice and mobile data over a 5G Advanced network while the shared equipment processed video analytics.
The approach, called AI radio access network technology, or AI-RAN, runs radio functions and artificial intelligence applications on the same computing equipment. Operators are testing whether it can make more effective use of existing spectrum and bring AI services closer to users. Neither live-network trial amounts to a broad commercial rollout.
Deutsche Telekom measured a 10% to 15% increase in uplink throughput in initial tests of an AI-based radio function. The measurements came from laboratories in Bonn, Germany, and Oulu, Finland, rather than a live network. The company plans a field trial to test the result under operating conditions.
Orange Business is piloting a separate system that distributes voice AI processing between central and regional network sites. It is testing a prototype with customers and has demonstrated an emergency-call translation scenario. The company is also assessing AI-RAN with Nokia and NVIDIA.
NVIDIA introduced two Aerial RAN Computer configurations, MGX 2U and MGX 4U, and said nine operators are building or expanding infrastructure powered by its technology. That figure does not represent nine completed commercial AI-RAN deployments.
The work follows T-Mobile’s AI-RAN Innovation Center announcement in September 2024 and Nokia’s partnership with NVIDIA announced in October 2025. BT plans its first live AI-RAN sites on the EE network in Birmingham, England, in 2027, when Elisa also expects to evaluate possible commercial services.
