Nokia commercially launched standalone (SA) 5G network equipment designed for private enterprise, with the kit set to be deployed at a test mine facility in Finland.

The technology has been in the test phase at customer facilities and with mobile operator partners since Q1.

Nokia Enterprise president Raghav Sahgal said the new product was “paving the way to accelerate digitalisation in the most demanding of use cases such as automotive manufacturing, where cloud, robotics and autonomous machine operations create mission-critical demands for reliable low latency and high data rate”.

Its first announced deployment is with Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology at a test mine in Tampere, Finland. The facility prototypes new industrial processes for mining companies around the world.

Using the new networking kit, the companies plan to develop automated mining processes and remote machine operations over 4K video links connecting the deep underground and surface control centre among other digital use cases.

Alongside the launch of SA 5G equipment, Nokia revealed a number of enhancements to its private network equipment based on LTE, improving the range of services available and supporting a greater number of bands.

The vendor provides private network equipment to 180 customers using previous generations of mobile technology, with 30 of these using non-standalone 5G as part of their agreement.