LIVE FROM MWC25 BARCELONA: Infinera inevitably dominated discussions during Nokia’s press and analyst briefing on the eve of MWC25, with the vendor’s outgoing chief Pekka Lundmark (pictured) and other executives hailing the acquisition of the US player as a significant boost for its position in optical networking.

Nokia completed the acquisition on 28 February, three days before the doors opened on MWC25 and eight months after it lined up the $2.3 billion deal.

Lundmark said Infinera “significantly increases our scale in optical networks and accelerates our innovation with web-scalers”.

Perhaps the key benefit is strengthening Nokia’s position in the US: Lundmark cited Infinera’s manufacturing capabilities in the nation as attractive.

Federico Guillen, president of Network Infrastructure, highlighted the speed with which the Infinera acquisition closed, though was coy about offering too much detail on the likely direction of the combination given the ink on the final deal was barely 40-hours old at the time of the briefing.

However, there was clear enthusiasm on the potential from the Infinera team being brought on board.

Former CEO of the acquired business David Heard, who is now NI chief strategic growth officer at Nokia, and Nokia’s VP and GM of optical networks James Watt each discussed future growth opportunities.

The executives argued providing the power and affordability required to meet operator needs across access networks, routing or optical connectivity can only be achieved by working at the chipset level.

R&D teams which had worked separately over the past decade would now combine to address big markets, the executives explained.

Getting defensive
Lundmark said the defence sector is another field Nokia is actively participating in as it unveiled a deal with Lockheed Martin and Verizon to embed its technology into the US defence company’s 5G.MIL Hybrid Base Station.

The Nokia chief said it is winning favour in the military and defence sector due to its position as a trusted partner and technology advances.

“It’s vital to have trusted actors in this space. Defence communications is increasingly about real-time situational awareness”, spanning strategic, operational and tactical situations.

Lundmark said Nokia recently launched a military-grade system which enables 5G connectivity, a significant step forward for “capabilities in capacity and latency, in security”, over products which were previously “on the level of 3G”.

Nokia had a military-grade portable 5G network set-up on show, which president of Mobile Networks Tommi Uitto said contained the RAN and core in a rucksack weighing 8kg.

Indoor tech display with two round tables. The left table has a wooden device, a small screen, and a sign. The right table has a monitor displaying

Uitto used the defence pack as an example of how the various divisions of Nokia continue to collaborate and benefit from each other’s work despite a decentralised approach which formed a foundation of Lundmark’s strategy.

In a panel session, executives emphasised each business unit still forms an essential part of Nokia the company, while facing a barrage of questions over geopolitics and how the vendor might manage these moving forward.

AI RAN
The vendor also lined up some news around AI RAN, with executives from T-Mobile US, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison and SoftBank Corp joining Uitto to discuss an approach the Nokia executive explained will be key as mobile data traffic is tipped to hit 1,888 Exabytes per month by 2033.

T-Mobile president of technology Ulf Ewaldsson (pictured, left) acknowledged AI may not be a new feature for most mobile operators, but explained the technology had significantly boosted the company’s abilities in network slicing, an area it won plenty of fresh business in over the course of 2024.

Ewaldsson said AI-driven automation was reaping benefits in disaster recovery, halving the time taken to reconnect customers.

Three men sit on a stage with logos of Indosat, Ooredoo Hutchison, and SoftBank in the background. The man on the left wears a black t-shirt and light pants, the middle man a brown jacket and dark pants, and the right man a suit and tie. They are engaged in discussion.

Indosat CEO Vikram Sinha (pictured, centre) discussed the benefits of being an AI-native operator, in particular its ability to fuel broader Indonesian digital and leadership goals, with SoftBank Corp VP and head of the Research Institute of Advanced Technology Ryuji Wakikawa (pictured, right) noting operators need a means to capitalise on the inferencing capabilities the emerging technology provides.

Slower pace
On more than one occasion, Lundmark noted he was not going to set a strategy which his successor Justin Hotard would then have to follow or reverse. Instead, the outgoing head emphasised the plan for a smooth transition by remaining on hand as an adviser for his successor until the year-end.

He said his decision to step down was due to having spent 23 years steering various listed companies, a period spanning 92 quarters and a resulting pace of life which “is addictive” but also “never stops”. The timeframe is “enough for one CEO”.

Lundmark argued he leaves Nokia in better shape than when he arrived, with the vendor having “regained our technology leadership”, after a period in the doldrums during the early days of 5G.

“Now the situation is completely different and it is different across all network domains, and we have also identified new significant growth vectors going forward.”