Nokia agrees to sell its campus private 5G business to a buyout firm

Nokia said on 13 October that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell its Enterprise Campus Edge (ECE) business to the investment firm Aurelius. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and consultation with employee representatives. Neither side disclosed a price.

ECE is the part of Nokia that sells private wireless networks to factories, mines, logistics sites, airports, ports and power plants. Its portfolio also covers industrial devices, on-premises operational technology (OT) edge computing and software for industrial AI. Nokia says it serves nearly 900 customers. Aurelius puts the unit’s annual sales at more than €170m (£144m) and its headcount at about 1,000, with key operations in Finland, Hungary, India and the US, according to RCR Wireless.

The sale has been coming for most of a year. From 1 January 2026 Nokia moved several units “not seen as core to the future of the company’s strategy” into a Portfolio Businesses segment. In July it reported that it had classified ECE as a discontinued operation during the second quarter, citing its assessment that it was “highly probable” it would agree a sale. It had already agreed to sell its fixed wireless access CPE unit to Inseego in April, SDxCentral reports.

For ECE’s customers, the deal turns a unit that sat inside one of the largest network equipment makers into a company of about 1,000 people funding its own research and support from more than €170m of sales, under an owner that has set out where it wants to grow but not how much it will spend.

What Nokia is keeping

Nokia has not left private wireless altogether. It keeps macro-scale private 4G and 5G core systems for utilities, defense and railways, RCR Wireless reports. A licensing arrangement for Nokia’s private 4G and 5G radios is expected but not confirmed.

ECE takes the Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) campus core and the edge platform software, according to TelecomTV. At the end of September 2025 Nokia had 960 private 4G and 5G customers and about half of the market by the Global mobile Suppliers Association’s count, which excludes China. According to RCR Wireless, about 90% of those customers were signed by ECE.

When ECE was first placed in the portfolio segment in November 2025, a Nokia spokesperson told TelecomTV: “Nokia’s leadership position and commitment to the private 5G market remains unchanged.” After the sale, that commitment rests on Nokia’s radios and its wide-area core systems.

What changes for the sites on its networks

Some of ECE’s campus contracts are on the Thames, in and east of London. In June 2025 Verizon Business and Nokia won a contract to build private 5G at the Port of Tilbury, DP World London Gateway and Ford’s Dagenham plant. Verizon leads each deployment, and Nokia supplies the radios, its DAC core and Mission Critical Industrial Edge (MXIE) compute at every site, RCR Wireless reported at the time.

“Our priority throughout the transition will be continued growth of the business and continuity for existing customers and employees,” said Konstanty Owczarek, chief corporate development officer at Nokia. ECE’s employees are expected to transfer with the business at closing, in line with local laws.

The product roadmap, the support organization and the research budget behind those networks will belong to a business that no longer draws on a parent with a wider network portfolio. Nokia says ECE is expected to benefit from “greater independence and a dedicated strategic focus” as a standalone business.

Aurelius sets out its growth case

“We see significant opportunities for ECE to build on its leading position in private 5G and industrial edge as a standalone business, expand its portfolio into emerging areas such as AI-powered industrial automation, and help customers accelerate the digitalization and automation of their operations,” said Fabian Steger, managing director of Aurelius Fund IV and V.

Steger also described a customer base that “includes many Fortune 500 enterprises across various industries”. Neither company has said how much Aurelius will invest, what Nokia technology ECE will license after closing or whether the Nokia brand stays on the products.

Analysts quoted by RCR Wireless were divided on the logic. Speaking to the outlet in July, before the deal was signed, Asad Khan, research director at SNS Telecom & Research, called Nokia’s decision to sell surprising given recent momentum in larger private 5G projects, while suggesting it may make sense on short-term profitability. Nokia’s own numbers support the second view: in the second quarter, ECE and the fixed wireless unit together brought in €66m of revenue and diluted profitability by about €13m, the same outlet reports.

Nokia is selling its campus core and edge business in a market in which it had a share of about 50% by the GSA’s count. For the ports, plants and warehouses on ECE’s campus networks, the supplier from 2027 is a company with more than €170m of sales whose investment budget will be set by Aurelius rather than by Nokia.