The Register: Nokia to share mobile network technologies with rivals

Nokia Oyj yesterday promised to “share” core mobile
network technologies with its competitors in a “de facto
standardization” effort that it claims is necessary to reduce
network industry cost structures, and hasten the realization of
next-generation mobile data services. It also unveiled its own
range of “open” network modules, making Linux-based systems a part
of its core infrastructure product portfolio for the first time.

According to JT Bergqvist, senior VP of the company’s Nokia
Networks infrastructure division, the Espoo, Finland-based
company’s Open IP Base Station Architecture initiative stems from
the recognition that the network business has been “rather
vertical”, relying on a few vendors to supply complete network
infrastructures. In future, he said, the potential of all IP
networks in particular will only be fully met if networks become
more open, allowing more suppliers to participate in them,
increasing innovation and competition, while reducing costs for
operators.

At first sight, the substance of Nokia’s latest “de facto
standardization” seems astonishingly altruistic. It will include,
Bergqvist promised, providing competitors with Nokia’s “core module
technologies … on an equal basis to its [Nokia’s] own systems
business.” The point being, said Bergqvist, “to open the internal
architectures for standard commercial components, thereby
increasing efficiency throughout the industry.”

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