The Lao Telecommunications Company (LTC) has contracted Nokia Shanghai Bell for a network expansion project, and has entered a 5G alliance with the vendor.
The companies have agreed to collaborate in the areas of 5G, NB-IoT, VR, cloud computing as well as 2G, 3G and 4G expansion, the Nation reported.
An agreement was signed last week between LTE director general Thavone Somsakoun and Nokia Shanghai Bell general manager Mike Wang.
According to the report, Nokia Shanghai Bell will provide LTC with FDD LTE and IP equipment and services to support the operator's network reach and capacity upgrade efforts.
LTC and Nokia Shanghai Bell have had a partnership agreement in place since the 1990s and have a long track record of collaboration.
LTC has around 1.5 million moile customers, including around 900,000 on 3G and 4G data services. The operator is targeting a profit for the current year of 422 billion kip ($50.9 million), up from 365 billion kip last year.