Finnish firms keep engines of industry running

First up is Nokia, who has started to collaborate with China Mobile to jointly explore the use of 5G. The co-operation will focus on delivering services for vertical industries in key growth areas such as smart cities, smart transportation and intelligent video analytics.

The Finnish telecommunications giant is also engaged with 5G in Italy, where it is carrying out a 5G trial in Milan together with Vodafone Italy. It is one of the first field applications of 5G in Europe and it leverages Nokia’s 5G end-to-end solution.

Nokia has found yet another partner in Facebook, as the two companies will launch global gigabit broadband trials in 2018 that combine Nokia’s worldwide delivery capabilities and wireless optical passive network (WPON) with Facebook’s Terragraph technology. Meanwhile, Nokia has also acquired US-based software company Unium in order to complement and strengthen its end-to-end solution for home wi-fi. Capping off a very busy week, Nokia is collaborating with Intel and Verizon on new groundbreaking Cloud RAN architectures to provide the flexibility needed for the operator’s future services and requirements for 4G, 5G and IoT in the cloud.

Then onto Wärtsilä, who has joined forces with global drilling contractor Maersk Drilling to create a unique 25-year thruster maintenance strategy for Maersk’s three semi-submersible rigs and four drillships, that will increase their uptime and reduce costs.

The Finnish technology company is also engaged in Saudi Arabia, where it will ensure the environmental sustainability and guarantee the reliability of operations at Najran Cement Company’s two power plants.

Wärtsilä is keeping busy in the middle of the Altlantic Ocean as well, where it will provide additional generating capacity to the local electricity grid of the Portuguese administered Azores Islands. Not to be outdone, it is also expanding its co-operation with Athens-based ship management company TMS Cardiff Gas with a maintenance agreement. Wärtsilä will thus ensure the maintenance predictability of operations of four carrier vessels from TMS Cardiff Gas’s fleet.

Finally to Gasum, who received an investment grant of 9.3 million euros from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency that will help the Finnish gas energy company open 16 new gas filling stations in Sweden. Gasum’s gas ecosystem expands the use of cleaner liquefied natural gas (LNG) in heavy-duty vehicles.