Nokia (NOK Quick QuoteNOK - Free Report) has announced plans to upgrade and expand Vodafone Idea Limited’s (“VIL”) optical transport network across major metropolitan and regional circles in India. This enhancement, powered by Nokia’s advanced optical switching technology, is aimed at significantly increasing network capacity to support the rising demand for 4G data services. The modernization will not only improve network flexibility and performance but also deliver greater operational efficiency.

What Does This Initiative Offer?

As part of this initiative, VIL will deploy Nokia’s comprehensive suite of optical solutions, including the 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) platform and its latest CDC-F 2.0 wavelength switching technology. Additionally, Nokia will introduce its cutting-edge photonic service engine (PSE-Vs) super-coherent optics, along with Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) and Optical Transport Network (OTN) systems. These technologies are designed to ensure high-quality, uninterrupted connectivity even during periods of peak traffic.

Nokia’s future-ready solutions will allow VIL to scale seamlessly from C-band to C+L band, eliminating the need for disruptive changes to the existing infrastructure. This not only helps reduce operational costs but also enhances long-term network adaptability. The project emphasizes sustainability by incorporating energy-efficient solutions and automation-driven deployment practices, thereby reducing its environmental impact.

Management highlighted that it is honored to partner with Vodafone Idea in modernizing its optical transport infrastructure. This collaboration strengthens Nokia’s long-standing relationship with India and reinforces its leadership in optical networking. The company’s 1830 PSS technology is built to support massive data growth and next-gen services, ensuring that VIL is well-positioned to meet both current and future connectivity needs.

Nokia Accelerates 5G Growth With Innovation and Expansion

Nokia is on track to achieve sustainable, profitable growth and technology leadership. It aims to accelerate its product roadmaps and cost competitiveness through additional 5G investments. It has been developing its 5G portfolio, strengthening AirScale and advancing the capabilities of its ReefShark chipset. Nokia’s extensive portfolio consists of around 20,000 patents, among which 7,000 are essential for 5G. The 5G portfolio is increasingly gaining traction among enterprise customers.

Nokia is well-positioned in the current technology cycle, backed by its strong end-to-end portfolio and growing success in major 5G markets like the United States and China. Its rapidly expanding AirScale base enables quick 5G upgrades. The company is leading the shift toward smart virtual networks by unifying mobile, broadband, IP routing and optical solutions with advanced software. Nokia is transforming connectivity with cutting-edge technologies across 5G, ultra-broadband, IP and Software Defined Networking, cloud applications and the Internet of Things.

Nokia is also witnessing healthy momentum in its focus areas of software and enterprise, which augurs well for the licensing business. It is poised to benefit from copper and fiber deployments of passive optical networking. It is the only global supplier that is offering O-RAN with commercial 5G Cloud-RAN networks. Nokia announced an expansion of its IP routing business into the data center market and highlighted that Apple was deploying its technology at its data centers. The company intends to accelerate strategy execution, sharpen customer focus and reduce long-term costs.

NOK’s Zacks Rank & Stock Price Performance

Currently, Nokia has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Shares of the company have soared 47.5% in the past year compared with the Zacks Wireless Equipment industry's growth of 42.7%.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Stocks to Consider in Wireless Equipment Space

Some better-ranked stocks from the broader technology space are InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC Quick QuoteIDCC - Free Report) , Ubiquiti Inc. (UI Quick QuoteUI - Free Report) and SAP (SAP Quick QuoteSAP - Free Report) . IDCC & UI presently sport a Zacks Rank #1 while SAP carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for InterDigital’s 2025 earnings per share is pegged at $10.45, unchanged in the past seven days. IDCC earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters while missing in one, with the average surprise being 158.4%. The company’s long-term earnings growth rate is 15%. Its shares have jumped 42.4% in the past six months.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Ubiquiti fiscal 2025 earnings per share is pegged at $8.22, unchanged in the past seven days. UI earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters while missing one, with the average surprise being 7.5%. In the last reported quarter, Ubiquiti delivered an earnings surprise of 33.3%. Its shares have surged 38% in the past six months.

SAP’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters while missing in one, with the average surprise being 6.38%. In the last reported quarter, SAP delivered an earnings surprise of 12.03%. The company’s long-term earnings growth rate is 9.3%. Its shares have surged 39.9% in the past year.