Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison becomes first mobile operator in Southeast Asia to deploy AI-RAN with Nokia and Nvidia

• Deployment will begin with a 5G AI-RAN lab in Surabaya in early 2025
• The parties will work with Indonesian universities, research institutions on AI-RAN

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (Indosat or IOH), a leader in AI-driven telecommunications, has announced a landmark initiative to deploy Artificial Intelligence Radio Access Network (AI-RAN) infrastructure across Indonesia in collaboration with Nokia and Nvidia. This integration combines Nokia's cutting-edge 5G Cloud RAN solution with the Nvidia AI Aerial platform to create a unified, accelerated computing infrastructure capable of hosting both AI and RAN workloads.

This milestone makes Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison the first operator in Southeast Asia and the third globally to build a commercial AI-RAN network, enabling the convergence of AI and wireless connectivity to enhance performance, efficiency, and unlock new industry opportunities, the company said in a statement.

The companies have signed an MoU to develop, test, and deploy the AI-RAN solution, initially focusing on AI inferencing workloads on Nvidia AI Aerial, followed by the integration of RAN workloads on the same platform.

As part of this initiative, Indosat, Nokia, and Nvidia will collaborate with leading Indonesian universities and research institutions to drive AI-RAN development. This partnership will support academic programmes to foster AI innovation in telecom applications, providing students and researchers with hands-on opportunities to contribute to next-generation AI-powered networks. By engaging with academia, the companies aim to accelerate advancements in AI-driven network optimisation, spectral efficiency, and energy consumption.

According to Indosat, this innovative approach will transform its network capabilities and business model. By sharing infrastructure costs across multiple applications, Indosat can maximise its return on investment while unlocking new revenue streams through a range of AI-driven services. The deployment is expected to deliver significant gains in network performance, spectral efficiency, and energy consumption, paving the way for a software-driven 6G upgrade.

This initiative aligns with Indonesia's national AI strategy, positioning Indosat as both a connectivity provider and an AI service enabler. Indosat has established a Sovereign AI Factory in Indonesia to support enterprises, startups, and government entities in developing local AI applications across healthcare, education, and agriculture.

With the new AI-RAN infrastructure, the company aims to serve AI inferencing needs and strengthen Indonesia’s AI ecosystem for its 277 million people. Using the Nvidia AI Enterprise software platform and serverless APIs, Indosat will optimise inferencing for a vast array of applications and enable seamless AI workload distribution across centralised and distributed infrastructure.

The new serverless API capabilities, developed with Nvidia, will allow Indosat’s AI application partners—including Hippocratic.ai, Personal.ai, GoTo, and Accenture—to leverage distributed inference engines to provide AI tokens at scale, ensuring a more consistent user experience.

Vikram Sinha, president director and CEO of Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, said: “This collaboration marks a transformative milestone for Indonesia’s telecommunications industry. By embedding AI into our radio access network, we’re not just enhancing connectivity—we’re building a nationwide AI-powered ecosystem that will fuel innovation across industries. This aligns seamlessly with our mission to connect and empower every Indonesian.”

The deployment will follow a phased approach, beginning with the establishment of a 5G AI-RAN lab in Surabaya in early 2025 for joint development, testing, and validation. A small-scale commercial pilot of AI inferencing workloads on Nvidia AI-RAN infrastructure is planned for the second half of 2025, with further expansion in 2026.

Tommi Uitto, president of Mobile Networks at Nokia, commented: “Nokia is proud to partner with Indosat on this transformative AI-RAN initiative across Indonesia. Combining AI with RAN creates a powerful engine for future innovation. With our 5G Cloud RAN platform, Indosat can transform its network into a multi-purpose computing grid that harnesses the synergies of AI-accelerated computing. Our AI-powered products will help Indosat augment RAN capabilities for enhanced performance, operational efficiency, automation, and optimised energy use.”

Ronnie Vasishta, SVP Telecoms at Nvidia, added: “AI-RAN is redefining the telecom industry. Indosat’s vision for a nationwide AI grid, combined with Nvidia’s AI expertise and full-stack software and hardware platform, will accelerate AI adoption and innovation across Indonesia, setting a new benchmark for telecom operators worldwide.”