MTN South Africa partnered with Nokia to modernise its network, and enhance connectivity and voice services, a move the operator argued puts it on a strong path to 5G evolution.

In a statement, the vendor explained it will provide its 5G cloud infrastructure and cloud-native IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), which provides multimedia and VoIP services, to drive MTN’s voice core evolution and lay the basis for the introduction of 5G.

MTN plans to expand its voice over broadband, Wi-Fi and LTE services.

CTIO Giovanni Chiarelli commented the tie-up allowed MTN to offer customers “the highest quality and fastest connectivity, including superior voice connectivity through VoLTE”.

Raghav Sahgal, Nokia’s president of Cloud and Network Services unit, added the deal helped MTN strengthen the network experience it provides to customers, and ensure “much-needed flexibility and lower network management costs”.

The long-standing partnership is expected to serve as a foundation for MTN’s efforts to modernise its networks in other African countries.

South Africa was the first country in MTN’s portfolio to launch 5G, in June 2020.