BARCELONA, Spain —Nokia says it has put together an end-to-end 5G-ready platform, called 5G First, that will cover all aspects of the network including the core, software-defined networking (SDN), and the cloud.  Speaking at a media event here today, Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri called 5G First the “global nervous system” for operators.

5G First is made up of Nokia products including Nokia AirScale massive MIMO Adaptive Antennas, the AirScale System Module, AirScale cloud RAN technology, and software. It will also include Nokia’s Cloud Packet Core and the Nokia Shared Data Layer, which is a cloud-native core architecture. The company also will work closely with Intel on its 5G modems.

Suri said that 5G First will be based upon the technical specifications from Verizon, which it believes will become a part of the 3GPP 5G standard when it’s released. Suri said that 5G First will be available later this year.

Nokia is working with Verizon and Intel on the operator’s pre-commercial 5G customer trials. Verizon announced last week that it was going to offer pre-commercial 5G services to pilot customers in 11 markets by mid-year. Those markets include Ann Arbor, Michigan; Atlanta; Bernardsville, New Jersey; Brockton, Massachusetts; Dallas; Denver; Houston; Miami; Sacramento, California; Seattle; and Washington, D.C.

But Nokia isn’t the only operator trying to win Verizon’s 5G business. Samsung announced last week that it had deployed 5G-ready systems in five U.S. cities in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Texas, Washington, D.C., and Michigan in preparation for Verizon’s customer trials. Samsung said those trials will begin in April and will use the 28 GHz millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum and advanced beam-forming technology.

Those trials will use Samsung’s pre-commercial 5G customer premises equipment, window antenna as well as 5G radio and core products.