Nokia supports TM Forum initiative, reinforces open standards leadership

Nokia Software has reinforced its leadership track record of advancing open software standards that are customer and experience centric, announcing its support for the designing, building and operating of digital services that use Open Digital Architecture and Open Application Program Interfaces.

Nokia Software announced its support – aimed at helping communication service providers (CSPs) develop new business models and better address new and existing customer needs, irrespective of the generation of mobile technology – in conjunction with TM Forum, the industry group. TM Forum, of which Nokia is a member, has over 850 member companies, including CSPs, software vendors, system integrators and consultants.

For years, open software design standards have been core to Nokia’s cloud-native software strategy and its Common Software Foundation (CSF), built several years ago. As a multi-vendor, multi-domain and multi-technology platform, CSF provides customers their choice of product deployment strategies.

CSF makes Nokia’s software products easier to deploy, integrate, and upgrade with a variety of cloud-native principles, giving operators the needed flexibility to be responsive to market demands while controlling costs at a time of growing network complexity.

With backing the TM Forum initiative, Nokia Software endorses the Open Digital Architecture (ODA) and Open Application Program Interfaces (APIs), reinforcing its existing open software architecture, as well as its commitment to zero-touch interoperability and partnering with CSPs and enterprises.

ODA and Open APIs are part of a broader Open Digital Framework, led by TM Forum, aimed at removing the need for large-scale software customization and integration, which is costly and inhibits product and R&D capabilities.

ODA is about creating a repository of tools, architecture, code, knowledge and standards to enable an open software model and a marketplace to support it. Open APIs are a type of programming code that enables data transmission between different types of software.

Nik Willets, CEO of TM Forum, said: “With the new major service providers and suppliers signing the manifesto for change announced today, TM Forum members, like Nokia, are transforming IT and operations to be fit for the 2020s. Today we’re taking the next step in the journey to ensure our industry can survive and thrive, building on the success and impact of our Open APIs. The momentum building to collaboratively deliver Open Digital Architecture will be the foundation for the software market our industry deserves, instead of sinking resources into maintenance and integration of customized legacy solutions that are blocking agility and innovation.”

Bhaskar Gorti, President of Nokia Software and Nokia Chief Digital Officer, said: “Nokia is pleased to give its added support to our TM Forum partners. Telecom networks and the supporting business, operations and experience systems are rapidly changing to one that is software-based, automated, intelligent, and customer- and experience-centric. In short, a network architecture that gives CSPs many new opportunities and use cases, like network slicing, that allow them to better serve their customers. And those endpoints are what we are driving towards with the announcement today.”