Nokia (News - Alert) and Pareteum made headlines this week in Next Generation Communications news.
As contributing writer Steve Anderson explained in a piece posted yesterday, Nokia – which once led the way in the cell phone market – is making another significant push to expand its presence in this important space via a new agreement with HMD Global Oy. That entails various transactions between Foxconn Technology Group, HMD, and Microsoft (News - Alert) that allow HMD to be the new home of Nokia devices for the next decade.
“We've been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm shown around the world for the return of the Nokia brand to smartphones,” said Nokia Technologies' interim president Brad Rodriguez. “The HMD Global team has the ambition, talent, and resources to bring a new generation of Nokia branded phones to market, and we wish them every success. I'm sure our millions of Nokia fans will be excited to see their new products!”
The smartphone arena as a whole is something of a mixed bag, as Anderson wrote in a different piece this week. He noted IDC (News - Alert) data showing that smartphone shipments were up .6 percent this year, but noted that’s much slower growth from the previous years, when shipments were up 10.4 percent between 2014 and 2015. Nonetheless, it should be noted that this year more than one billion smartphones will ship, according to IDC, so this remains an enormous market.
Anderson this week also wrote about the new demand for test equipment that coming 5G networks are expected to create. And, in a separate story, he talked about Nokia’s efforts in Scandanavia. That includes the company’s work on fixed broadband in Denmark and its collaboration with Finnish operator Elisa (News - Alert) on mobile voice services indoors and out.
As for Pareteum, I talked to the company at the recent TMC (News - Alert) Editors’ Day in Santa Clara, Calif. There, the company’s CEO, Vic Bozzo, told me about the company’s work in the Internet of Things. The company, formerly called Elephant Talk, provides mobile virtual network operators and mobile network operators with cloud-based mobile communications infrastructure, operating software, and managed services.
