Nokia ( NOK ) said Thursday that it has been selected by Kansas City Power & Light to enhance the microwave communications network that supports a range of mission-critical services for the utility's power transmission and distribution grid.

The new network, based on packet microwave technology, is intended to support power delivery and reliability for Kansas City Power & Light's more than 800,000 customers in and around Kansas City, Mo., as well as parts of neighboring state of Kansas.

Kansas City Power & Light is reinforcing its network using Nokia's Wavence microwave packet radio family of technologies (formerly known as the 9500 Microwave Packet Radio), which will enable the utility to support all of its grid control applications alongside its legacy data services using a single, converged network. This will simplify the management and operation of its network, while laying the groundwork for the introduction of emerging grid applications in the future, the company said. This is covered by a 10-year agreement to enable network expansions and upgrades.

The current deployment, covering 40 sites, is already underway and is to be completed before the end of 2017. A second phase consisting of 29 additional sites will follow shortly after.

NOK ADRs were down 1.6% in recent trading.

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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.