Nokia has announced that it has declared more than 2,000 patent families to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) as essential for the 5G standard, reflecting its continuing leadership in cellular technology R&D and standardization.

The 5G standardization process is managed by 3GPP, a partnership of seven standards development organizations including ETSI. Within 3GPP, the technical specifications for 5G communications have been developed collaboratively, selecting the best technologies from those contributed by a range of innovators. Products which comply with the standard can work interoperably with those from other manufacturers, increasing consumer choice.

Driven by world-class inventions from across Nokia, including the renowned Nokia Bell Labs, Nokia has played a leading role in contributing technologies to 5G, working with the 3GPP organization to establish 5G standards and enabling the rollout of 5G networks. Nokia had a key role in driving the first set of globally interoperable 5G standards to completion with 3GPP Release 15, and is now contributing towards the next set of standards, Release 16. Through its research innovation and standardization leadership, Nokia ensured a 5G standard which could be easily implemented and enable faster initial deployments.

Nokia’s contributions in innovation and standardization come as the 5G era continues to take root. While initial beneficiaries will be consumers, as the technology and network architecture develop the focus will expand to all enterprises and industrials, with end-to-end 5G networks forming the critical fabric for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Marcus Weldon, Nokia Chief Technology Officer and President of Nokia Bell Labs, said, “With every wave of digital transformation, Nokia’s innovations, technologies and R&D have changed how the world is connected. Our world-leading researchers have enabled Nokia to build one of the industry’s strongest patent portfolios, while our 5G standardization team provides critical leadership to the 3GPP standardization process. We were pioneers of the earliest cellular innovations that laid the foundation for the entire industry and continued to pioneer game-changing technologies, such as MIMO, massive MIMO, mmWave radio technologies, advanced modulation and coding schemes, and mobile edge computing. And the tradition of technologies invented by Nokia Bell Labs leading the world clearly continues in the 5G era.”

Nokia’s 2,000th patent family declared for 5G includes US patent US9,338,785B2 and European patent EP2848055B1, describing an invention which provides network resources for smartphones, industrial devices and other equipment with different capabilities and expectations to access services with shorter latency, increased reliability and higher throughput. The inventors are based at Nokia Bell Labs in Aalborg, Denmark.

With the latest declarations, the portfolio of Nokia cellular standard essential patents (SEPs) declared to one or more of the 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G standards spans more than 2,700 patent families. The Nokia Technologies business manages and licenses the Nokia patent portfolio, with more than 150 licensees including most major smartphone vendors.

Jenni Lukander, President of Nokia Technologies, said, “At Nokia, we have long understood the importance of open standardization in enabling others to build on our innovation and create new products for people around the world. Through licensing, other businesses and industries can benefit from Nokia’s innovation, as we seek to enable an ever more connected world.”