Highlights of Nokia’s Smart Factory in Oulu, Finland for 5G and 6G innovation
Nokia has opened a Smart Factory in Oulu, Finland, for 5G/6G design, manufacturing, and testing, integrating AI technologies and Industry 4.0 applications. It brings ~3,000 staff under one roof and is positioned as Europe’s flagship site for radio access (RAN) innovation.
The Oulu campus will initially focus on 5G, including: Standardization, System-on Chips as well as 5G radio hardware and software and patents. Oulu Factory, part of the new campus, will target New Production Introduction for Nokia’s 5G radio and baseband products. The new campus strengthens Oulu’s ecosystem as a global testbed for resilient and secure networks for both civilian and defense applications.
At Oulu “Home of Radio” campus, Nokia’s research and innovation underpins high quality, tested world class products readymade for customers across markets. Nokia’s experts will continue to foster innovation, from Massive MIMO radios like Osprey and Habrok to next-generation 6G solutions, creating secure, high-performance, future-proof connectivity.
Sustainability is integral to the facility. Renewable energy is used throughout the site, with additional energy used to heat 20,000 households in Oulu. The on-site energy station is one of the world’s largest CO2-based district heating and cooling plants.
Active 6G proof-of-concept trials will be tested using ~7 GHz and challenging propagation scenarios.
“Our teams in Oulu are shaping the future of 5G and 6G developing our most advanced radio networks. Oulu has a unique ecosystem that integrates Nokia’s R&D and smart manufacturing with an ecosystem of partners – including universities, start-ups and NATO’s DIANA test center. Oulu embodies our culture of innovation and the new campus will be essential to advancing connectivity necessary to power the AI supercycle,” said Justin Hotard, President and CEO of Nokia
Nokia Oulu Facts:
- Around 3,000 employees and 40 nationalities working on the campus.
- Oulu campus covers the entire product lifecycle of a product, from R&D to manufacturing and testing of the products.
- Footprint of the building is overall 55,000 square metres, including manufacturing, R&D and office space.
- Green campus with all energy purchased green and all surplus energy generated fed back into the district heating system and used to heat 20,000 local households.
- The campus boasts 100% waste utilization rate and 99% avoidance in CO2 emissions.
- Construction started in the second half of 2022, with the first employees moving into the facility in the first half of this year.
- YIT constructed the site and Arkkitehtitoimisto ALA were the architects.
References:
https://www.sdxcentral.com/analysis/behind-the-scenes-at-nokias-new-home-of-radio/
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From Light Reading:
After a turbulent few years in 5G, the clear message from Nokia is that it remains fully committed to mobile like a devoted spouse to an errant partner. Annual market sales of radio access network (RAN) products have fallen by $10 billion since 2022, to about $35 billion last year, according to analyst company Omdia (part of the same group as Light Reading). And Nokia has suffered unduly, losing US RAN contracts with Verizon (in 2020) and AT&T (in late 2023). Profits have been eroded. Justin Hotard, who succeeded Pekka Lundmark as CEO in April, has had to explain why the market is still attractive when some shareholders would rather see mobile cut loose.
The worry, though, is about Nokia’s ability to compete against bigger-spending rivals. Ericsson, its main one outside China, has increased annual R&D expenditure by almost 70% since 2016, to 53.5 billion Swedish kronor (US$5.7 billion) last year. At Nokia, investment has barely changed, rising less than 2% over that period, to almost €4.3 billion ($5 billion) in 2024. And unlike Nokia – with its activities in fixed, Internet Protocol (IP) and optical network technologies – Ericsson is focused on mobile. A breakdown of R&D spending by business unit is not provided by Nokia, but Hotard did not refute the suggestion at a press conference in Oulu that Ericsson clearly outspends Nokia in the RAN.
Nokia’s 5G RAN portfolio is undeniably more competitive than it was in 2019, when bad decisions taken under previous management had proven costly, ultimately resulting in a loss of RAN market share. But the more recent and damaging loss of AT&T as a customer was mainly down to the US operator’s desire to have a single provider of key elements for its 5G network. Ericsson, AT&T’s main supplier, benefited at Nokia’s expense.
Since then, however, Nokia claims to have grown its basestation footprint by 30,000 sites, landing new deals with some of the world’s biggest operators. And speculation that T-Mobile, Nokia’s remaining large US mobile customer, would follow Verizon and AT&T by similarly dumping Nokia has so far proven wrong.
Outside the US, unfortunately, the RAN market looks to be neither growing nor very profitable for Nokia even though it is contested by a very small number of vendors. For the first six months of this year, Nokia’s mobile networks unit reported a year-over-year sales decline of 6%, to about €3.5 billion ($4.1 billion), and an operating loss of €75 million ($88 million), compared with a profit of €149 million ($175 million) for the year-earlier half.
Sources within China, moreover, have told Nokia’s executives that Ericsson and Nokia face total bans for national security reasons. Their combined market share is just 3%, according to Nokia, but Nokia’s small presence in such a huge country garnered about €537 million ($629 million) in first-half sales across all business groups, roughly 5% of total revenues. Losing China, effectively, could have almost the same impact as losing AT&T in mobile.
https://www.lightreading.com/5g/nokia-ceo-recommits-to-mobile-despite-all-today-s-ugliness