Canadian Facilities Drive Nokia's Wireless Revolution
Nokia, a company with a remarkable knack for reinventing itself, is once again in mid-evolution. The company that has manufactured and sold more than a billion cellular telephones is now determined to become the world's leading Internet-services company. To realize this vision, the company continues to expand its Canadian operations.
Canada and Nokia's wireless revolution
Given this success, it comes as no surprise that Nokia conducts a great deal of its research and development in Canada. In fact, the company spends more on services R&D in Canada than in any country other than Finland and the United States.
"Nokia and Canada go back a long way," says Brad Lowe, Director of Research and Development at Nokia's facility in Burnaby, a suburb of Vancouver. "Canada is where the company opened its first sales office outside Finland, back when we manufactured boots and safety equipment."
The company established the subsidiary Nokia Canada in the 1970s and in 1995, Nokia and the University of Sherbrooke (Quebec) partnered on the development of the EFR Voice Codec, a major advancement in sound quality for mobile telephones.
"Canada has a long history of innovation in communications," Lowe says. "Part of the reason for this is probably the nature of the country itself-given its huge landmass and widely dispersed population, Canada needs reliable, efficient ways to communicate. From Nortel and Anik satellites, to Research in Motion's BlackBerry and Flickr, this country is an important developer of new technologies."
In addition to OZ, a recent acquisition in Montréal, Nokia currently maintains facilities in Ottawa, Toronto and Burnaby. The Burnaby office focuses on the development of the next generation of wireless devices and services. Many of the staff once worked for Vienna Systems, an Internet Protocol company Nokia acquired in 1998.
Vancouver's flourishing IT sector
"The work done here in Burnaby is critical to Nokia's ability to evolve successfully into an Internet-services company," continues Lowe.
Burnaby is a natural choice for Nokia for several reasons.
"First and foremost, this region has a large pool of exceptionally talented people," says Lowe. "Electronic Arts, one of the world's largest gaming studios, is just one of many companies located here. Several top-quality universities and colleges, from UBC and UVic to SFU, are keen to partner with us on developing the next generation of programmers and engineers."
Vancouver's international reputation as a safe, comfortable and cosmopolitan city also helps to fuel growth in the IT sector. The region's high quality of life, along with Canada's welcoming immigration policies, makes it easier for companies such as Nokia to recruit and retain talented workers from abroad. Canada's R&D tax credits and other public incentives make the region even more attractive.
"There's no doubt that the Lower Mainland of British Columbia is home to a great deal of increasingly sophisticated research," Lowe underscores. "Nokia is proud to be a part of it and the Burnaby office will help us usher in a new era in mobile communications."
Nokia's remarkable evolution
Nokia was born in the 1800s as a series of pulp mills in southern Finland. The company later moved into the chemical and rubber industries, and by the 1970s Nokia manufactured boots and safety equipment for markets around the world. At that time, the company began to recognize the potential of an emerging technology: mobile communications. In 1981, Nokia helped found the world's first international cellular network - Scandinavia's Nordic Mobile Telephone service. The company soon began to focus almost exclusively on telecommunications and became the world's largest manufacturer of mobile telephones in 1998. By the time Nokia had sold its billionth cell phone in 2005, the company's evolution into Internet services was already well under-way.
As the world leader in mobility, Nokia continues to drive the convergence of Internet and wireless communications. The company makes a wide range of mobile devices, along with the services and software that enable people to access everything from email and music to games and business applications.
"The market for sophisticated mobile devices will only continue to grow," Lowe remarks.
"Consumers continue to demand increased functionality from their wireless devices. The phrase 'cell phone' is pretty much outdated today, because people now rely on mobile devices for so much more than telephony. Today, people use these devices to work, listen to music, access the Internet, send and receive email, play games, take pictures… the list will just continue to grow."
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Prepared by the Invest in Canada Bureau, Spring 2009
