Nokia, SoftBank Plan Commercial AI-RAN Trial in Japan in 2027

03:32 AM EDT, 10/20/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Nokia (NOK) said Tuesday it has agreed with SoftBank to conduct a commercial trial of artificial intelligence radio access network technology in Japan in 2027. The company said the trial will combine its anyRAN software with SoftBank's AITRAS platform and Nvidia's (NVDA) Aerial RAN Computer technology. Nokia said the trial would assess how AI and radio network workloads can run on shared computing infrastructure, potentially improving resource use and supporting new AI-based services. It will also help SoftBank advance plans to commercialize AI-RAN and move Nokia's technology from laboratory testing to real-world deployment, it added.