Nokia eyes APAC opportunities in IoT, 5G
Sans smartphones, Nokia looks to build out its Asia-Pacific footprint in key verticals such as healthcare, transportation, and financial services, with the aim to move towards “everything-as-a-service” model.
Eager to move past its days as a handset maker, Nokia wants to build its footprint in Asia-Pacific as a provider of next-generation networks and focus on key verticals such as healthcare and transportation.
Home to 60 percent of the world’s population, including Asean where the population was largely familiar with mobility, cloud, and social media, the Asia-Pacific region was undergoing various stages of digital transformation. This offered opportunities in which Nokia could expand its technology footprint in areas such as 4G and 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and digital health, said Sandeep Girotra, Nokia’s senior vice president for Asia-Pacific and Japan.
Home to 60 percent of the world’s population, including Asean where the population was largely familiar with mobility, cloud, and social media, the Asia-Pacific region was undergoing various stages of digital transformation. This offered opportunities in which Nokia could expand its technology footprint in areas such as 4G and 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and digital health, said Sandeep Girotra, Nokia’s senior vice president for Asia-Pacific and Japan.
Asked if it could prove challenging to shake off public perception that Nokia was primarily a phone maker, rather than a provider of enterprise networking services, Girotra said it was “proud of the heritage” and acknowledged that its “iconic phones” left “a strong mark”.
Asked if it could prove challenging to shake off public perception that Nokia was primarily a phone maker, rather than a provider of enterprise networking services, Girotra said it was “proud of the heritage” and acknowledged that its “iconic phones” left “a strong mark”.
With HMD Global now the exclusive licensee of Nokia-branded phones, he told ZDNet that Nokia was focused on “driving digital transformation and building next-generation networks” for communications services providers in Asia-Pacific.
With HMD Global now the exclusive licensee of Nokia-branded phones, he told ZDNet that Nokia was focused on “driving digital transformation and building next-generation networks” for communications services providers in Asia-Pacific.
He said the 2015 acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent had boosted its portfolio of 5G, IoT, software, and cloud offerings. Last September, it also signed a deal with Singapore operator M1 to deploy a nationwide NB-IoT (narrowband IoT) network, which was slated to be commercially ready by first-half 2017. Its partnership with M1 had included the rollout of the national heterogeneous network (HetNet), which tapped Nokia’s small cells and Wi-Fi equipment and was touted to enable devices to switch seamlessly between various types of wireless networks. Read more…