Nokia has secured a significant contract to supply 5G equipment for maritime operator Tampnet, replacing existing 4G radios from Ericsson and Huawei across the company’s public and private networks.
The deal represents a major win for Nokia, as Tampnet’s network encompasses over 120 base stations serving more than 350 oil and gas platforms, floating production units (FPSOs), exploration rigs, wind farms, and vessels. According to analyst firm Dell’Oro, this contract reinforces Nokia’s position as a top-three global private RAN supplier and the leading Western vendor in the market.
While Nokia will provide the 5G radio access network (RAN), Tampnet has selected Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to supply the core for its private networks. The cores for its public networks, which operate in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, will be provided by Mavenir. Tampnet is also in the process of securing a second supplier for its private network core.
Anders Tysdal, Tampnet’s CTO of Infrastructure, stated that the full network upgrade will be a gradual process. “We will spend some time to do this due to the difficulties and limited access to the offshore sites,” he said, explaining that the rollout will be executed according to customer, capacity, and regulatory demands. An initial 5G deployment is already operational for Aker BP on its Edvard Grieg platform off the coast of Norway.
Tysdal noted that Tampnet, which first launched offshore 4G in 2013, will now make 5G the standard for all new deployments. He added that Tampnet’s public network is accessible to any offshore user either directly or through roaming partners, such as its cooperation with AT&T to provide FirstNet coverage in the US.
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