PLDT and Smart Pick Nokia to transform nationwide network

Nokia will supply its Digital Operations software, cloud infrastructure software and AirFrame servers to enhance the nationwide network of PLDT, the Philippines’ largest, fully integrated telecommunications company, and its wireless unit Smart Communications (Smart).

The suite of solutions will also standardize PLDT and Smart’s virtualization environment for multi-vendor applications. The deployment, which is already underway, will allow PLDT and Smart’s integrated network to increase agility, flexibility and reduce operating costs and time to market when deploying new consumer and enterprise services, with the primary focus of significantly improving customer experience, speed of delivery, and cost of production.

Nokia will deploy its Digital Operations software to automate the round-trip lifecycle management of network functions, as well as network-facing and customer-facing services. Specifically, as PLDT and Smart evolve their integrated network from physical to virtual form, the solution will manage two interrelated flows. First, it will oversee the network function lifecycle from onboarding through runtime to decommissioning. Then, it will facilitate the lifecycle from design to deployment and assurance that orchestrates services and network slices across the network. This will enable PLDT and Smart to drive efficiencies into their operations processes while also becoming more agile to deliver innovative market-facing services.

Nokia will also standardize PLDT and Smart’s Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI) across the South Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao regions of the Philippines, as the unified NFVI for the deployment of multiple vendors’ Virtualized Network Functions. Nokia will deploy applications, operations and network management solutions across its NFVI cloud platform and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) core.

Mario G. Tamayo, Head of Technology at PLDT and Smart, said: “Our deployment of Nokia’s software and infrastructure solutions have allowed us to tap into new levels of agility, flexibility and efficiency as we add innovative new offerings to complement our current market-leading consumer and enterprise services. This is an essential part of our broad and all-encompassing effort to keep the integrated PLDT and Smart network optimized and able to deliver the best experience to all our customers.”

Raghav Sahgal, President of Cloud and Network Services at Nokia, said: “By automating service, network and cloud operations, PLDT and Smart will not only be able to drive cost-savings, but also increase customer satisfaction – two business objectives that are typically challenging to do simultaneously but are possible with the help of Nokia’s solutions.”