Friday, February 27, 2026
Nokia has secured a major contract with Telefónica to deploy advanced, AI-ready networking solutions across Telefónica’s Edge data centers in Spain. This multi-year collaboration marks a pivotal milestone in Telefónica’s strategy to strengthen its next-generation digital infrastructure and accelerate AI-driven services nationwide.
As part of the agreement, Nokia will provide networking solutions for 17 newly established Edge nodes throughout Spain. Notably, 12 of these nodes are already operational, including deployments at Telefónica’s flagship Tecno-Alcalá facility—recognized as one of the largest data centers globally. With this rollout, Telefónica reinforces its commitment to delivering high-speed, ultra-low latency, and highly reliable connectivity to support AI, B2B, and Telco Cloud services.
Importantly, these Edge nodes will enable AI training and inferencing at the network edge. As a result, critical sectors such as healthcare, education, industry, and government will benefit from enhanced digital services. At the same time, the initiative strengthens Spain’s position as a European leader in advanced digital infrastructure while reinforcing data sovereignty and technological innovation.
Under the terms of the agreement, Nokia will exclusively manage the deployment of networking solutions across all 17 Edge nodes. The company will provide connectivity within the data centers—linking compute and storage systems—and ensure seamless external connectivity to broader networks. This exclusive, single-vendor model simplifies operations, unifies architectural standards, and improves overall efficiency across the project lifecycle.
The partnership builds on a successful pilot phase completed in 2024, during which Nokia deployed networking infrastructure across three initial Edge data centers. Following that achievement, Telefónica selected Nokia as its sole networking technology partner for the broader national Edge expansion.
“This initiative fully aligns with our strategy to make Edge Cloud and Artificial Intelligence main cornerstones of Telefónica’s growth. Nokia has proven to be a trusted connectivity partner in this mission, and they are playing a critical role in building secure, reliable data center networks for our ambitious Edge node project. Through this effort, we are not only enhancing our digital infrastructure but also reinforcing Spain’s technological sovereignty and enabling a more dynamic, user-centric digital ecosystem.”
Sergio Sánchez, CTIO at Telefónica España
David Heard, President, Network Infrastructure at Nokia, emphasized the strategic importance of the collaboration:
“We are proud to collaborate with Telefónica for this landmark project that supports our customer’s shift to a nationwide distributed Edge architecture. This win underscores our long-term strategic relationship and Nokia’s leadership in building AI-ready, high-performance data centre networking solutions. Together, we’re creating the foundation for Spain’s digital future—bringing intelligence and services closer to where people and businesses need them most.”
David Heard, President, Network Infrastructure at Nokia
To deliver these capabilities, Nokia will deploy its 7220 Interconnect Router (IXR) data center switches and 7750 Service Router (SR) data center gateways. These technologies enable deep automation, multi-cloud integration, and the agility required to meet evolving AI and digital service demands.
Through this initiative, Nokia continues to support telecom operators, cloud providers, and mission-critical enterprises worldwide in building secure, scalable, and AI-ready data center networks designed for the future.
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