Nokia promises 2x spectral efficiency by 2028, Orange wants live-network proof first

Nokia said at the Intelligent RAN Forum that its AI RAN delivers 20% spectral efficiency gains today, 50% by mid-2027 and more than 100% by 2028. Orange will validate performance, energy use and TCO on a limited basis in its live network before committing to any single architecture.

• Nokia: 20% spectral efficiency now, 50% by mid-2027, 2x by 2028
• Three deployment options on one anyRAN stack: AirScale card, cloud AI-RAN, standalone node
• Orange will start small and won't pick one architecture for the whole network
• Nokia: an operator on AI RAN today can reach 6G via software upgrade alone