• SaaS model enables telecommunication providers to build and scale networks with reduced capital investment and operational complexity.

The world’s first commercial mobile service on 5G Core SaaS, powered by Nokia and Amazon Web Services , is now live with Belgium’s Citymesh, marking a new era in how telecommunications providers can choose to build and scale their networks.

The software-as-a-service model, which transforms core networks and their operations into flexible, subscription-based services, reduces the upfront capital investment and operational complexity of traditional network deployments. It delivers catalog-based service creation, on-demand network capabilities, and rapid feature deployment, with predictable cost control through subscription pricing and pay-as-you-grow infrastructure.

Citymesh is using Nokia’s Core SaaS for Business, running on AWS’s global cloud infrastructure, to serve enterprises across venues and events, airports, hospitals, offshore settlements, first responders, drone operators, and transportation sectors, and to power its new mobile offering for self-employed professionals and subject matter experts. The solution allows Citymesh to design intuitive, customized service plans without having to conduct extensive telecommunications engineering or ongoing integration work.

Running on AWS global cloud infrastructure provides the scalability to handle unpredictable demand spikes across diverse enterprise environments without requiring upfront infrastructure investments. The platform’s multi-region architecture ensures telecommunications-grade availability, while comprehensive security controls meet stringent industry requirements.

“Launching the world’s first commercial 5G Core SaaS service is a major milestone for Citymesh. With Nokia’s Core SaaS on AWS, we can scale faster, reduce complexity and upfront investment, and deliver secure, high-performance connectivity tailored to our enterprise customers. And what’s more, it allows us to develop a telecom offering tailored for all businesses, including the self-employed and SMEs,” said Robin Leblon, Chief Technology Officer at Citymesh.

Nokia’s Core SaaS for Business delivers telecom-grade reliability with AWS security and performance across a comprehensive service catalog, including 4G and 5G Core, network slicing, IMS core, IoT services, automation, and security capabilities. Operators scale capacity on demand without managing hardware while exposing network capabilities through APIs (application programming interfaces).

“Telecom SaaS represents a paradigm shift in the telecommunications industry. Partnering with leaders like AWS helps us deliver cloud-native infrastructure that makes advanced connectivity simple and intuitive for providers, allowing them to subscribe to services only when needed and growing their spend with demand. This groundbreaking announcement by Citymesh proves that 5G Core SaaS has moved from concept to production-ready reality,” said Kal De, SVP, Product & Engineering, Core Software at Nokia.

“Nokia’s Core SaaS for Business exemplifies how telecommunications service providers can leverage AWS to transform their operations, delivering simplified deployment and lifecycle management. Running on AWS, Nokia enables telecommunications operators to launch and scale telecommunications services with the elasticity, reliability, security, and trust the industry demands, while dramatically reducing operational complexity. This collaboration shows how AWS’ Cloud is enabling telecommunications providers to innovate faster and respond more quickly to market opportunities,” said Fabio Cerone, Managing Director, EMEA Telco Business Unit at AWS.