Nokia and Saudi Arabian neutral tower provider Tawal announced on Tuesday the successful completion of a live demonstration showcasing a shareable multi-tenant, Open RAN edge cloud platform. The demonstration, held at LEAP 2025 in Riyadh, showcased how operators can share 5G infrastructure at reduced costs.
The demo featured Nokia’s 5G AirScale indoor radios, which were connected to Dell PowerEdge XR8000 servers hosting virtualized CU/DU software within Nokia’s anyRAN framework. This open, cloud-native platform supports multi-operator RAN sharing and can accommodate third-party RAN software, giving Tawal the flexibility to select vendors while maintaining carrier-grade performance. Nokia highlighted that the solution’s compact design and lower power consumption make it ideal for smart-city edge nodes and enterprise campuses.
Tawal explained that the platform allows multiple service providers, including mobile operators and large enterprises, to share the same edge cloud infrastructure, significantly reducing capital expenditures and energy consumption. This approach will help 5G service providers avoid unnecessary capital expenses on duplicated infrastructure.
As demand for widespread 5G connectivity in Saudi Arabia increases, especially to support smart city initiatives, neutral towers are expected to play a crucial role, said Tawal’s Chief Commercial Officer, Abdulrahman Al Moaiqel. He noted, “Neutral hosts must add value beyond steel and concrete. By partnering with Nokia, we can offer Saudi operators an on-demand, pay-as-you-grow 5G platform that reduces their total cost of ownership (TCO) and accelerates digital transformation for the Kingdom’s giga projects.”
