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Nokia's AirScale Tuuli: Assuring Cost-Efficient, Sustainable 5G Baseband Solutions
Nokia provides energy-optimized, compact outdoor baseband solutions, such as the AirScale Tuuli family, to meet the high customer demand for cost-efficient, simple 5G upgrades while minimizing network and energy costs for telecommunication providers.
12/22/2025
Key Highlights
- Nokia’s Tuuli 26e can enable a more agile transition to 5G by sliding directly into existing Flexi product casings, enabling operators to reuse infrastructure and reduce installation complexity and costs.
- The high-capacity Tuuli 26e serves as a versatile anchor for macro sites by supporting all mobile generations (2G–5G) in a single unit, facilitating efficient spectrum refarming and long-term investment protection.
- Powered by specialized ReefShark silicon, the Tuuli series achieves up to 70% energy savings in real-world deployments, offering a sustainability advantage over rivals such as Huawei and Ericsson.
- The AirScale portfolio is built on O-RAN compliance and an AI-ready modular architecture, ensuring networks can scale computing power as sophisticated AI-driven RAN tasks are poised to emerge through 2026.
- Through a $1 billion partnership with NVIDIA, Nokia is integrating the ARC-Pro platform into its anyRAN architecture, effectively turning cell sites into distributed edge AI data centers to lead the 5G-Advanced and 6G era.
The News
Nokia is placing a strategic emphasis on RAN modernization in response to a growing market need for compact, cost-effective outdoor baseband technology. By deploying these advanced solutions, operators can seamlessly transition to 5G while benefiting from expanded capacity, superior performance-to-cost metrics, and enhanced energy efficiency. For more information, read the Nokia blog by Mark Atkinson.
Analyst Take
Upgrading existing infrastructure to 5G is no longer a complex or prohibitively expensive undertaking. As such, Nokia is aiming to provide a streamlined path for site modernization that simplifies the transition while managing costs effectively through the AirScale portfolio, specifically the Tuuli compact outdoor baseband family.
The Tuuli series is designed to expand versatility, supporting both macro and small cell configurations. These solutions can be mounted virtually anywhere, including building walls, poles, or lamp posts, ensuring they can fit into any urban or rural deployment environment regardless of space constraints.
Key to this lineup is the high-capacity Tuuli 26e, which serves as a universal anchor for macro sites by supporting every mobile generation from 2G through 5G. This multi-technology support can simplify modernization and enable smooth spectrum refarming from 4G to 5G, supporting the ability of existing hardware investments to remain protected over the long term. For operators specifically looking to boost performance, the Tuuli 24 offers a dedicated solution for expanding network capacity and extending 5G coverage.
From my viewpoint, the AirScale portfolio also fulfills topmost operator forward-thinking requirements as it is built on a foundation of O-RAN compliance and AI integration. These products are already AI-ready, featuring a modular architecture that can enable computing power to scale as AI-driven RAN tasks become more sophisticated. Accordingly, this design can ensure that network investments remain compatible with the next generation of intelligent telecommunications.
Nokia seeks to advance network modernization by prioritizing simplicity and sustainability, delivering solutions that can minimize both operational complexity and environmental impact. A key innovation is the Tuuli 26e, which is engineered to slide directly into existing Flexi product casings; this plug-and-play compatibility enables operators to reuse current infrastructure in both urban and rural settings, reducing waste and installation costs.
To further streamline operations, Nokia has integrated a WiFi Local Management Port (LMP), enabling technicians to commission and maintain units remotely in real time, which can minimize and eliminate the need for physical site access and accelerates service delivery. This baseband evolution is a central pillar of Nokia’s holistic strategy to help customers achieve net-zero targets and improve business performance through a more energy-efficient, sustainable network architecture.
Nokia Reshaping the RAN Competitive Landscape
I see that Nokia can set itself apart from major rivals Ericsson and Huawei by championing a zero-footprint philosophy that prioritizes high versatility for 5G modernization across existing infrastructure. While Huawei is traditionally recognized for high raw capacity and Ericsson for its integrated software scalability, the Nokia Tuuli series, led by the Tuuli 26e, can gain a competitive edge through its robust multi-RAT support, consolidating 2G through 5G capabilities into a single, compact unit.
This design is specifically tailored for brownfield operators, enabling them to re-farm spectrum and upgrade sites without the prohibitive costs or mechanical complexity of a total hardware replacement. Moreover, powered by ReefShark silicon, these solutions can offer up to 70% energy savings, positioning Nokia as a pace setter in the shift toward Green RAN initiatives as operators look to balance massive traffic growth with advancing sustainability goals in 2026.
By using the specialized ReefShark System-on-Chip (SoC), the Nokia Tuuli 26e 70% energy savings contrasts with Huawei’s reliance on GaN power amplifiers for efficiency or Ericsson’s strategy of running hardware-agnostic software on general-purpose Intel processors. Nokia’s all-in-one physical architecture for macro sites stands out by doubling the cell capacity of previous models and incorporating AI-ready capabilities, which can help assure agile management of the sophisticated RAN processing requirements expected heading into 2026.
By integrating the latest ReefShark SoC technology into its AirScale portfolio, Nokia’s AirScale Dual Boost can elevate base station capabilities, achieving improved processing speeds for both uplink and downlink in Massive MIMO deployments. This advancement can do more than sharpen the end-user experience; it can provide operators with a strategic advantage, enabling them to optimize their existing hardware and software infrastructure to drive greater operational efficiency and revenue growth.
Looking Ahead
I believe Nokia can help accelerate RAN modernization by offering a zero-footprint upgrade path where the Tuuli 26e slides directly into existing Flexi casings, enabling brownfield operators to reuse infrastructure and avoid the high costs of complete hardware overhauls. As a result, the portfolio can secure a competitive edge through its multi-RAT versatility and ReefShark-powered efficiency, consolidating 2G through 5G into a single unit that delivers up to 70% energy savings compared to rival architectures. Furthermore, by integrating O-RAN compliance and modular, AI-ready hardware today, Nokia can help ensure that operator investments are future-ready and capable of scaling for the intelligent, automated network demands of 2026.
Over the next 12 months, I anticipate that Nokia can strengthen the competitiveness of its AirScale and Tuuli solutions by capitalizing on its newly formed Mobile Infrastructure segment and its strategic $1 billion partnership with NVIDIA. By integrating NVIDIA’s ARC-Pro platform into its anyRAN architecture, Nokia is positioned to lead the transition to AI-native 5G-Advanced networks, enabling operators to handle the AI supercycle with field trials scheduled for 2026.
This collaboration can enable Nokia to differentiate itself from competitors by offering a modular hardware path where new AI-enhanced processing cards can coexist with current AirScale basebands, effectively turning cell sites into distributed edge AI data centers. Furthermore, by doubling down on O-RAN compliance and autonomous operations through its MantaRay AutoPilot platform, Nokia can expand its ecosystem influence, providing the scalability and energy-efficient infrastructure, highlighted by the Tuuli 26e’s 70% energy savings, that global operators such as T-Mobile and Telefónica require to monetize high-growth areas like agentic AI and industrial robotics.
Ron Westfall | VP and Practice Leader for Infrastructure and Networking
Ron Westfall is a prominent analyst figure in technology and business transformation. Recognized as a Top 20 Analyst by AR Insights and a Tech Target contributor, his insights are featured in major media such as CNBC, Schwab Network, and NMG Media.
His expertise covers transformative fields such as Hybrid Cloud, AI Networking, Security Infrastructure, Edge Cloud Computing, Wireline/Wireless Connectivity, and 5G-IoT. Ron bridges the gap between C-suite strategic goals and the practical needs of end users and partners, driving technology ROI for leading organizations.