Nokia unveiled its second 5G contract win of 2022, a seven-year RAN deal with GO Malta which builds on a 15-year relationship between the pair.

The Finland-based vendor boasted it will be the Maltese mobile operator’s sole strategic partner for the 5G network, which will be based on the Nokia AirScale RAN portfolio.

Nokia stated it had worked with GO Malta since the operator introduced 3G services in 2007.

GO Malta highlighted plans to invest €16 million in its 5G network and is targeting nationwide coverage by the end of 2023.

It has already started to sell 5G services to post-paid customers in some areas.

GO Malta is majority-owned by Tunisie Telecom and competes with Epic Communications (previously Vodafone Malta) and Melita in the area of fixed and mobile services.

Head of steam
For Nokia, the Maltese deal closely follows an extension of a partnership with Tele2 to deploy 5G RAN in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in a long-term deal.

Also this year, WindTre in Italy selected Nokia to deploy a high‑performance optical backbone to support line rates of up to 600Gb/s.

Nokia recently predicted it would exceed its financial guidance for 2021: it is due to release official figures on 3 February.